This book focuses on whether African development has historically been weighted in favor of the urban areas, and the concern that the benefits - and imperatives - of urban development are being lost in current adjustment approaches. The authors argue that it is necessary to harness the financial and human resources of the city as part of a strategy to ensure greater and more widespread economic development.

Beyond Urban Bias includes a detailed examination of the role and development of urban centers in Africa. It also investigates sources of changes in the growth of individual towns and in the structures of urban systems.

It devotes attention to the role of rural-to-urban migration and its causes; the authors present theoretical and empirical investigations of neoclassical economic models, non-neoclassical economic models, and demographic cohort models of urbanization and urban wage and employment structures.

Beyond Urban Bias also provides a detailed, critical analysis of the relationship between Africa's rapid urbanization and the present economic crisis, as well as an assessment of the impact of structural adjustment programs on Africa's urban future.