Shape theory is an extension of homotopy theory from the realm of CW-complexes to arbitrary spaces. Besides applications in topology, it has interesting applications in various other areas of mathematics, especially in dynamical systems and C*-algebras. Strong shape is a refinement of ordinary shape with distinct advantages over the latter. Strong homology generalizes Steenrod homology and is an invariant of strong shape. The book gives a detailed account based on approximation of spaces by polyhedra (ANR's) using the technique of inverse systems. It is intended for researchers and graduate students. Special care is devoted to motivation and bibliographic notes.

Shape theory is an extension of homotopy theory from the realm of CW-complexes to arbitrary spaces. Besides applications in topology, it has interesting applications in various other areas of mathematics, especially in dynamical systems and C*-algebras. Strong shape is a refinement of ordinary shape with distinct advantages over the latter. Strong homology generalizes Steenrod homology and is an invariant of strong shape. The book gives a detailed account based on approximation of spaces by polyhedra (ANR's) using the technique of inverse systems. It is intended for researchers and graduate students. Special care is devoted to motivation and bibliographic notes.

The aim of this international conference the third of its type was to survey recent developments in Geometric Topology and Shape Theory with an emphasis on their interaction. The volume contains original research papers and carefully selected survey of currently active areas. The main topics and themes represented by the papers of this volume include decomposition theory, cell-like mappings and CE-equivalent compacta, covering dimension versus cohomological dimension, ANR's and LCn-compacta, homology manifolds, embeddings of continua into manifolds, complement theorems in shape theory, approximate fibrations and shape fibrations, fibered shape, exact homologies and strong shape theory.