Vikramaditya Prakash discusses vernacular architectural practice in the developing world. He describes how the rapidly changing landscape in South East Asian cities has renewed interest in master planning as a way to create “coherent visions for new mega-cities.” He discusses the ethical dilemma of master planning, and describes cases where Indian communities have resisted and adapted to master plans. He characterizes the local and global as “allegories of each other,” and calls master planning to be replaced by bodies and processes that produce and revise plans.