Following a workshop in Oxford on 'Community Health and the Urban Poor' sponsored by Oxfam, UNICEF, the Overseas Development Administration and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Oxfam agreed to publish this newsletter until the publication of a book from the workshop. Seven issues of 'Urbis' were published between Spring 1986 and Autumn 1987.

The book, In the Shadow of the City: Community Health and the Urban Poor, was published by Oxford University Press in April 1988.