Shopping district at night
A
city is a relatively large and permanent
settlement, particularly a large
urban settlement. Although there is no
agreement on technical definitions distinguishing a city from a
town within general
English language meanings, many cities have
a particular
administrative,
legal, or
historical status
based on local law.
For example, an article of incorporation
approved by the local cognizant (state)
legislature separates towns from city
government forms, rights, duties and privileges in Massachusetts, and similar distinctions are made across the
world, particularly in former colonies of the United
Kingdom. Historically, in Europe, a city was
understood to be an urban settlement with a cathedral; in later usages, especially in the
United
Kingdom and parts of Commonwealth of Nations, a city was
a settlement with a royal
charter.
Cities generally have advanced systems for
sanitation,
utilities,
land usage,
housing,
transportation and more. The concentration of
development greatly facilitates interaction between people and
businesses, benefiting both parties in
the process.
A big city, or
metropolis, usually has
associated
suburbs and regions. Such cities
are usually associated with
metropolitan areas and
urban sprawl, creating numerous business
commuters traveling to urban centers of employment. Once a city
sprawls far enough to reach another city, this region can be deemed
a
conurbation or
megalopolis.
The birth of cities
There is insufficient evidence to assert what conditions in world
history gave rise to the first cities. Theorists, however, have
offered arguments for what the right conditions might have been and
have identified some basic mechanisms that might have been the
important driving forces.
Cities or agriculture first?
The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the
Neolithic revolution. The
Neolithic revolution brought
agriculture, which made denser human populations
possible, thereby supporting city development . The advent of
farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles
and to choose to settle near others who lived by agricultural
production. The increased population density encouraged by farming
and the increased output of food per unit of land, created
conditions that seem more suitable for city-like activities. In his
book,
Cities and Economic Development,
Paul Bairoch takes up this position in his
argument that agricultural activity appears necessary before true
cities can form.
According to
Vere Gordon Childe,
for a settlement to qualify as a city, it must have enough surplus
of raw materials to support trade . Bairoch points out that, due to
sparse population densities that would have persisted in
pre-Neolithic, hunter-gatherer societies, the amount of land that
would be required to produce enough food for subsistence and trade
for a large population would make it impossible to control the flow
of trade. To illustrate this point, Bairoch offers an example:
"Western Europe during the pre-Neolithic, [where] the density must
have been less than 0.1 person per square kilometer" . Using this
population density as a base for calculation, and allotting 10% of
food towards surplus for trade and assuming that there is no
farming taking place among the city dwellers, he calculates that
"in order to maintain a city with a population of 1,000, and
without taking the cost of transportation into account, an area of
100,000 square kilometers would have been required. When the cost
of transportation is taken into account, the figure rises to
200,000 square kilometers..." .
Bairoch noted that 200,000 square kilometers
is roughly the size of Great Britain.
In her book
The Economy of Cities,
Jane Jacobs makes the controversial claim that
city-formation preceded the birth of agriculture. Jacobs does not
lend her theory to any strict definition of a city, but her account
suggestively contrasts what could only be thought of as primitive
city-like activity to the activity occurring in neighboring
hunter-gatherer settlements. To argue this view, Jacobs suggests a
fictitious scenario where a valued natural resource leads to
primitive economic activity—in her example, the resource is
obsidian. The stock of obsidian is
controlled and traded with neighboring hunting groups. Hunters who
do not control the stock travel great distances to barter what they
have, valuing obsidian because it "makes the sharpest tools to be
had" . This activity brings more people to the center as jobs are
created and goods are being traded. Among the goods traded are
seeds of all different sorts, stored in unprecedented combinations.
In various ways, some accidental, the seeds are sown, and the
variation in yields are observed more readily than they would be in
the wild. The seeds that yield the most grain are noticed and
trading them begins to occur within the city. Owing to this local
dealing, the city dwellers find that their grain yields are the
best, and for the first time make deliberate and conscious
selection. The choices made now are purposeful, and they are made
among various strains of already cultivated crosses, and their
crosses, mutants and hybrids .
Why do cities form?
Theorists have suggested many possible reasons for why people would
have originally decided to come together to form dense populations.
In his book
City Economics, Brendan O'Flaherty asserts
"Cities could persist—as they have for thousands of years—only if
their advantages offset the disadvantages" . O'Flaherty illustrates
two similar attracting advantages known as
increasing returns to scale and
economies of scale, which are
concepts normally associated with firms. Their applications are
seen in more basic economic systems as well. Increasing returns to
scale occurs when "doubling all inputs more than doubles the output
[and] an activity has economies of scale if doubling output less
than doubles cost" . To offer an example of these concepts,
O'Flaherty makes use of "one of the oldest reasons why cities were
built: military protection" . In this example, the inputs are
anything that would be used for protection (e.g.: a wall) and the
output is the area protected and everything of value contained in
it. O'Flaherty then asks that we suppose that the area to be
protected is square and each hectare inside it has the same value
of protection. The advantage is expressed as:
- (1) O = s^2, where O is the output (area
protected) and s stands for the length of a side. This equation
shows that output is proportional to the square of the length of a
side.
The inputs depend on the length of the perimeter:
- (2) I = 4s, where I stands for the quantity of
inputs. This equation shows that the perimeter is proportional to
the length of a side.
So there are increasing returns to scale:
- (3) O = I^2/16. This equation (algebraically,
combining (1) and (2)) shows that with twice the inputs, you
produce quadruple the output.
Also, economies of scale:
- (4) I = 4O^{1/2}. This equation (combining (1)
and (2)) shows that the same output requires less input.
"Cities, then, economize on protection, and so protection against
marauding barbarian armies is one reason why people have come
together to live in cities..." .
Similarly, "Are Cities Dying?", a paper by Edward L. Glaeser,
delves into similar reasons for city formation: reduced transport
costs for goods, people, and ideas. An interesting piece from
Glaeser's article is his argument about the benefits of proximity.
He claims that if you double a city size, workers have a ten
percent increase in earnings. Glaeser furthers his argument by
stating that bigger cities do not pay more for equal productivity
than in a smaller city, so it is reasonable to assume that workers
become more productive if they move to a city twice the size as
they initially worked in. However, the workers do not benefit much
from the ten percent wage increase, because it is recycled back
into the higher cost of living in a bigger city. They do gain other
benefits from living in cities, though.
Geography
Modern city planning has seen many different schemes for how a city
should look.
The most commonly seen pattern is the
grid, favoured by the Romans, almost a
rule in parts of the Americas, and used for
thousands of years in China.
Derry was the
first planned city in Ireland, begun in
1613, with the walls being completed five years later. The
central diamond within a walled city with four gates was thought to
be a good design for defence. The grid pattern was widely copied in
the colonies of British North America.
The Ancient Greeks often gave their colonies around the
Mediterranean a grid plan.
One of the best examples is the city of
Priene. This city had different specialized
districts, much as is seen in modern city planning today.
Fifteen
centuries earlier, the Indus
Valley Civilization was using grids in such cities as Mohenjo-Daro. In medieval times there was evidence of a
preference for linear planning. Good examples are the cities
established by various rulers in the south of France and city
expansions in old Dutch and Flemish cities.
Grid plans were popular among planners in the 19th century,
particularly after the redesign of Paris. They cut through the
meandering, organic streets that followed old paths.
The United States
imposed grid plans in new territories and towns, as the American West was rapidly established, in
places such as Salt Lake
City and San
Francisco.
Other forms may include a radial structure, in which main roads
converge on a central point. This was often a historic form, the
effect of successive growth over long time with concentric traces
of
town walls and
citadels. In more recent history, such forms were
supplemented by ring-roads that take traffic around the outskirts
of a town.
Many Dutch cities are
structured this way: a central square surrounded by concentric
canals. Every city expansion would imply a new circle
(canals + town walls).
In cities such as Amsterdam and Haarlem, and Moscow, this
pattern is still clearly visible.
History
Towns and cities have a long history, although opinions vary on
whether any particular
ancient
settlement can be considered to be a city. A city formed as central
places of trade for the benefit of the members living in close
proximity to others facilitates interaction of all kinds. These
interactions generate both positive and negative externalities
between others' actions. Benefits include reduced transport costs,
exchange of ideas, sharing of natural resources, large local
markets, and later in their development, amenities such as
running water and
sewage
disposal. Possible costs would include higher rate of crime, higher
mortality rates, higher cost of living, worse pollution, traffic
and high commuting times. Cities will grow when the benefits of
proximity between people and firms are higher than the cost.
The first true towns are sometimes considered to be large
settlements where the inhabitants were no longer simply farmers of
the surrounding area, but began to take on specialized occupations,
and where trade, food storage and power was centralized. In 1950
Gordon Childe attempted to define a
historic city with 10 general metrics. These are:
- Size and density of the population should be above normal.
- Differentiation of the population. Not all residents grow their
own food, leading to specialists.
- Payment of taxes to a deity or king.
- Monumental public buildings.
- Those not producing their own food are supported by the
king.
- Systems of recording and practical science.
- A system of writing.
- Development of symbolic art.
- Trade and import of raw materials.
- Specialist craftsmen from outside the kin-group.
This categorisation is descriptive, and it is used as a general
touchstone when considering ancient cities, although not all have
each of its characteristics.
One characteristic that can be used to distinguish a small city
from a large town is organized government. A town accomplishes
common goals through informal agreements between neighbors or the
leadership of a chief. A city has professional administrators,
regulations, and some form of taxation (food and other necessities
or means to trade for them) to feed the government workers. The
governments may be based on heredity, religion, military power,
work projects (such as canal building), food distribution, land
ownership, agriculture, commerce, manufacturing, finance, or a
combination of those. Societies that live in cities are often
called
civilizations. A city can also
be defined as an absence of physical space between people and
firms.
Ancient times
Early cities developed in a number of regions of the ancient world.
Mesopotamia can claim the earliest cities,
particularly Eridu, Uruk, and
Ur. After Mesopotamia, this culture arose in
Syria and Anatolia, as shown by the city of Çatalhöyük (7500-5700BC). It is the largest Neolithic
site found to date.
Although it has sometimes been claimed that
ancient Egypt lacked
urbanism, several types of urban settlements were found in ancient
times.
The
Indus Valley Civilization
of ancient Pakistan and China are two
other areas with major indigenous urban traditions.
Among the
early Old World cities, Mohenjo-daro of the Indus Valley Civilization in present-day
Pakistan, existing from about 2600 BC to 1900 BC, was one of
the largest, with an estimated population of 40,000 or more.
Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, the large Indus capitals, were among the first
cities to use grid plans, drainage, flush
toilets, urban sanitation systems,
and sewage
systems. At a somewhat later time, a distinctive
urban tradition developed in the Khmer region of Cambodia, where Angkor grew into
one of the largest cities (in area) of the world.
In the ancient Americas, early urban traditions developed in
Mesoamerica and the
Andes.
Mesoamerica saw the rise of early urbanism
in several cultural regions, including the Classic Maya, the Zapotec of Oaxaca, and Teotihuacan in central Mexico. Later cultures such as
the
Aztec drew on these earlier urban
traditions. In the Andes, the first urban centers developed in the
Chavin and
Moche
cultures, followed by major cities in the
Huari,
Chimu and
Inca cultures.
This roster of early urban traditions is notable for its diversity.
Excavations at early urban sites show that some cities were
sparsely-populated political capitals, others were trade centers,
and still other cities had a primarily religious focus. Some cities
had large dense populations, whereas others carried out urban
activities in the realms of politics or religion without having
large associated populations. Theories that attempt to explain
ancient urbanism by a single factor, such as economic benefit, fail
to capture the range of variation documented by archaeologists
(Smith 2002).
The
growth of the population of ancient civilizations, the formation of
ancient empires concentrating political
power, and the growth in commerce and manufacturing led to ever
greater capital cities and
centres of commerce and industry, with Alexandria, Antioch and Seleucia of the Hellenistic civilization, Pataliputra (now Patna) in India, Chang'an (now Xi'an) in China, Carthage, ancient Rome, its eastern
successor Constantinople (later Istanbul), and successive Chinese, Indian and Muslim capitals approaching or exceeding the
half-million population level.
Keith
Hopkins estimates that ancient Rome had a
population of about a million people by the end of the first
century BC, after growing continually during the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st
centuries BC. Alexandria's population was also close to Rome's population at
around the same time, the historian Rostovtzeff estimates a total
population close to a million based on a census dated from 32 AD
that counted 180,000 adult male citizens in Alexandria.
Similar
administrative, commercial, industrial and ceremonial centres
emerged in other areas, most notably medieval Baghdad, which according to George Modelski, later became the first city
to exceed a population of one million by the 8th century instead of
Rome.
The
growth of ancient and medieval empires led to ever greater capital cities and seats of provincial
administration, with Pataliputra (in India), Changan (in China), ancient
Rome, its eastern successor Constantinople (later Istanbul), and successive Chinese, Islamic, and Indian capitals
approaching or exceeding the half-million population level.
It is
estimated that ancient Rome had a population of around 450,000
people by the end of the last century BC, which is considered the
only European city to reach that number until the Industrial Revolution, although
Constantinople came close. Alexandria's population was also close to Rome's population at
around the same time. Similar large administrative, commercial,
industrial and ceremonial centres emerged in other areas, most
notably Baghdad, which became the first city to exceed a population
of one million, followed by Beijing also
exceeding one million.
While
David Kessler and Peter Temin consider
ancient Rome to be the
largest city before 19th century London, George Modelski considers medieval Baghdad, with an estimated population of 1.2 million at its
peak, to be the largest city before 19th century London.
Others estimate that Baghdad's population may have been as large as
2 million in the 9th century.
Agriculture was practiced in sub-Saharan
Africa since the third millennium BC. Because of
this, cities were able to develop as centers of non-agricultural
activity. Exactly when this first happened is still a topic of
archeological and historical investigation. Western scholarship has
tended to focus on cities in Europe and Mesopotamia, but emerging
archeological evidence indicates that urbanization occurred south
of the Sahara in well before the influence of Arab urban culture.
The oldest sites documented thus far are from around 500 AD
including Awdaghust, Kumbi-Saleh the ancient capital of Ghana, and
Maranda a center located on a trade rout between Egypt and
Gao.
Middle Ages
During the European
Middle Ages, a town
was as much a political entity as a collection of houses. City
residence brought freedom from customary rural obligations to lord
and community:
"Stadtluft macht
frei" ("City air makes you free") was a saying in Germany.
In
Continental Europe cities with
a legislature of their own were not unheard of, the laws for towns
as a rule other than for the countryside, the lord of a town often
being another than for surrounding land. In the
Holy Roman Empire some cities had no other
lord than the emperor.
In Italy, Medieval communes had quite a statelike
power.
In
exceptional cases like Venice, Genoa or Lübeck, cities themselves became powerful states,
sometimes taking surrounding areas under their control or
establishing extensive maritime empires. Similar phenomena
existed elsewhere, as in the case of
Sakai, which enjoyed a considerable autonomy in
late medieval Japan.
Early Modern
While the
city-states, or poleis, of the Mediterranean and Baltic
Sea languished from the 16th century, Europe's larger
capitals benefited from the growth of commerce following the
emergence of an Atlantic trade. By the late 18th century, London had become
the largest city in the world with a population of over a million,
while Paris rivaled the
well-developed regionally-traditional capital cities of Baghdad, Beijing, Istanbul and Kyoto.During the
Spanish colonization of
the Americas
the old Roman city concept was extensively used. Cities were
founded in the middle of the newly conquered territories, and were
bound to several laws about administration, finances and
urbanism.
Most towns remained far smaller places, so that in 1500 only some
two dozen places in the world contained more than 100,000
inhabitants: as late as 1700 there were fewer than forty, a figure
which would rise thereafter to 300 in 1900. A small city of the
early modern period might contain as few as 10,000 inhabitants, a
town far fewer still.
Industrial Age
The growth of modern
industry from the late
18th century onward led to massive
urbanization and the rise of new great cities,
first in Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities
brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban
areas. In the United States from 1860 to 1910, the invention of
railroads reduced transportation costs, and large manufacturing
centers began to emerge, thus allowing migration from rural to city
areas. However, cities during those periods of time were deadly
places to live in, due to health problems resulting from
contaminated water and air, and communicable diseases. In the
Great Depression of the 1930s
cities were hard hit by
unemployment, especially those with a base in heavy industry.
In the U.S. urbanization rate increased forty to eighty percent
during 1900-1990. Today the world's population is slightly over
half urban, with millions still streaming annually into the growing
cities of
Asia,
Africa
and
Latin America. There has also been
a shift to suburbs, perhaps to avoid crime and traffic, which are
two costs of living in an urban area.
External effects
Modern cities are known for creating their own
microclimates. This is due to the large
clustering of heat absorbent surfaces that heat up in
sunlight and that channel
rainwater into underground ducts.
Waste and
sewage are two
major problems for cities, as is
air
pollution coming from various forms of combustion, including
fireplaces, wood or coal-burning stoves, other heating systems, and
internal combustion
engines. The impact of cities on places elsewhere, be it
hinterlands or places far away, is considered in the notion of
city footprinting
(
ecological footprint).Other negative external effects
include health consequences such as communicable diseases, crime,
and high traffic and commuting times. Cities cause more interaction
with more people than rural areas, thus a higher probability to
contracting contagious diseases. However, many inventions such as
inoculations, vaccines, and water filtration systems have also
lowered health concerns.
Crime is also a
concern in the cities. Studies have shown that crime rates in
cities are higher and the chance of punishment after getting caught
is lower. In cases such as burglary, the higher concentration of
people in cities create more items of higher value worth the risk
of crime. The high concentration of people also makes using auto
mobiles inconvenient and pedestrian traffic is more prominent in
metropolitan areas than a rural or suburban one.
Cities also generate positive external effects. The close physical
proximity facilitates
knowledge
spillovers, helping people and firms exchange information and
generate new ideas. A thicker labor market allows for better skill
matching between firms and individuals. Another positive external
effect of cities comes from the diverse social opportunities
created when people of different backgrounds are brought together.
Larger cities typically offer a wider variety of social interests
and activities, letting people of all backgrounds find something
they can be involved in.
Cities may however also have a positive influence on the
environment. UN
Habitat stated in its
reports that city living can be the best solution for dealing with
the rising population numbers (and thus still be a good approach on
dealing with overpopulation). This is because cities concentrate
human activity into one place, making the environmental damage on
other places smaller. Letting the cities have a positive influence
however, can only be achieved if
urban
planning is improved and if the city services are properly
maintained.
The difference between towns and cities
The difference between
towns and
cities is differently understood in different parts of the
world. Indeed, many languages other than English often use a single
word for both concepts (German
Stadt, Swedish
stad, Danish/Norwegian
by, etc.). Iberian languages typically use a
three-way designation (Catalan:
“poble”,
“vila”,
“ciutat”; Galician:
“aldea”,
“vila”,
“cidade”; Portuguese:
“aldeia”,
“vila”,
“cidade”; Spanish:
“pueblo”,
“villa”,
“ciudad”—respectively “village”,
“town”, “city”), but other romance languages don’t (French:
“village”,
“ville”; Italian: “
villaggio”,
“città”—respectively “village”,
“city”).
Even within the
English-speaking
world there is no one standard definition of a city: the term may
be used either for a town possessing city status; for an urban
locality exceeding an arbitrary population size; for a town
dominating other towns with particular regional economic or
administrative significance. In British English
city is
reserved for very large settlements, smaller ones are called
town or
village. In the
US
city is used for much smaller settlements.
Although
city can refer to an
agglomeration including suburban and satellite
areas, the term is not usually applied to a
conurbation (cluster) of
distinct urban
places, nor for a wider
metropolitan
area including more than one city, each acting as a focus for
parts of the area. And the word "town" (also "downtown") may mean
the center of the city.
Australia and New Zealand
Sydney is the biggest city of Australia
In
Australia,
city in its
broadest terms refers simply to any town that is large enough.
Narrower usage can refer to a
local government area, or colloquially
to the
central business
district (CBD) of a large urban area.
For instance the City
of South Perth is a local government area within the wider urban
area known as Perth, commonly called Australia's fourth largest
city. Residents of Sydney might speak of travelling to the
CBD as "going to the city".
Australia's largest cities are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
In official designations, a city or rural city is the style of some
local government areas, whereas a town is a kind of
bounded locality with an
urban lifestyle, commercial activities and social services,
providing for both the town and surrounding region. Therefore,
cities contrast with shires whereas towns contrast with suburbs (in
the Australian sense) and rural districts or townships (i.e. small
settlements); a city may contain many towns and a town may be in
more than one city.
A "provincial city" is any urban area (other
than the capital city) that is a combination of multiple suburbs—no
matter the status of its LGA (thus, Stawell in the Northern Grampians Shire is a
minor provincial city). Approximately, a city can be
understood as an urban area which is divided into suburbs, and a
town is an urban area which is not divided into suburbs.
In New Zealand, according to
Statistics New Zealand (the government
statistics agency), "A city [...] must have a minimum population of
50,000, be predominantly urban in character, be a distinct entity
and a major centre of activity within the region.".
For example Gisborne, purported to be the first city to see the sun, has
a population of only 44,500 (2006) and is therefore administered by
a district council, not a city council. At the other extreme,
Auckland, although it is usually referred to as a single
city, is actually four cities: Auckland City, Waitakere
City, North
Shore City, and Manukau
City.
Belarus
In the
Belarusian language two words mean "city" or "town" - "горад"
(horad) and "ме?та" (miesta), where "horad" translated as
"fortifying miesta", or "stronghold". The term "miesta"
translated as "town without fortifying" and meaning modern town. In
the contemporary Belarusian language term "horad" is used more
often, in spite of lexical inexactitude of this term. The smallest
population of a city of Belaruse officially not named "horad" or
"miesta" it is used a name "urban-type settlement" ("па?елі?ча
гарад?кога тып?", "paselyscha haradskoha typu") and also (informal
or with historical sense) "мя?тэчка" ("miastechka").
Belgium
Brazil
Brazil is divided
into states ( ) and these into
municipalities (municípios);
there is no county or equivalent
level. Brazilian law defines a "city" (
cidade) as
the urban seat of a municipality and establishes no difference
between cities and towns; all it takes for an urban area to be
legally called a "city" is to be the seat of a municipality, and
some of them are semi-rural settlements with a very small
population. Municipalities always have the same name as their
corresponding cities, and the terms
município and
cidade are often used interchangeably, even by the
government itself, although this is not technically correct.
However,
except for the Federal District (the area of the national capital city,
Brasília), which has special status and no municipalities,
all land in Brazil is in the territory of some municipality.
Thus, even in the country's remotest wilderness areas, one is still
technically under the jurisdiction of a "city," or at least of its
government.
Brazil's largest cities are São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, both located on the heavily urbanized South East
coast.
Bulgaria
Canada
In Canada the granting of city status is handled by the individual
provinces and
territories, so that the definitions and criteria vary widely
across the country.
In British Columbia and Saskatchewan towns can become cities after they reach a
population of 5,000 people, but in Alberta and Ontario the requirement is 10,000.
Although it has numerous cities in the traditional sense of the
term, Ontario also sometimes confers city status on primarily rural
areas whose municipalities have been merged into a former
county government.
Nova Scotia has abolished the title of city altogether, with
all local government taking place at the regional municipality
level.
In
Quebec, there is
no legal distinction between a city and a town,
as both have the legal status of ville. The
province formerly differentiated between
ville (town) and
cité (city), but no longer does so.
China
A city is a administrative division in
Mainland China. There are three types of
cities: a
municipality ia a
provincial-level division (e.g. Shanghai or Beijing); a
prefecture-level city ia governed by
provinces or
autonomous
regions; and a
county-level
city is a sub-unit of a
prefecture-level
administrative division. Also in Taiwan, a city (named
county-controlled city) is a type of
administrative division of a county.
There is
a formal definition of city in China provided by
the Chinese government. For an urban area that can be
defined as a
city, there should be at least 100,000
non-agricultural population.
City with less than 200,000
non-agricultural population refers to a small city, 200,000-500,000
non-agricultural population is a medium city, 500,000-1,000,000
non-agricultural population is a large city and >1,000,000
non-agricultural population is an extra-large city. Also, there is
an administrative definition based on the city boundary too and a
city has its legal city limits. In 1998, there were 668 cities in
China. China has the largest urban population in the world although
most of its population still lives in rural areas.
Chile
Chile's
Department of National Statistics defines a city (ciudad
in Spanish) as an urban entity with more
than 5,000 inhabitants. A town (
pueblo), is an
urban entity with 2,001 to 5,000 persons, however, if the area has
some economic activity, the designation may include populations as
small as 1,001. The department also defines Major Cities as
provincial or regional capitals with populations of 100,001 to
500,000; Great Urban Areas which comprise several entities without
any appreciable limit between them and populations which total
between 500,001 and 1,000,000. A Metropolis is the largest urban
area in the country where there are more than one million
inhabitants. The "urban entity" is defined as a concentration of
habitations with more than 2,000 persons living in them, or more
than 1,000 persons if more than half of those persons are in some
way gainfully employed.
Tourist and
recreation areas with more than 250 living units
may be considered as urban areas.
Venezuela
Venezuela's Department of National Statistics defines a city
(ciudad in Spanish) as an
urban entity with more than 5,000
inhabitants. A town (
pueblo), is an urban entity
with 2,001 to 5,000 persons.
Germany
The German word for both "town" and "city" is
Stadt, while
a city with more than 100,000 inhabitants is called a
Großstadt (big city). On the other hand, most towns are
communities belonging to a
Landkreis (county or rural
district), but there are some cities, usually with at least 50,000
inhabitants, that are counties by themselves (
kreisfreie
Städte).
Germany's largest cities are Berlin, Hamburg and Munich although
the largest urban area is in the Rhine-Ruhr region around such
cities as Dortmund, Duisburg and Essen.
Iceland
India
Italy
In
Italy a city is called città, an uncount noun
derived from the Latin
civitas. The status of "city" is granted by the
President of the Republic with Presidential Decree Law.
The
largest and most important cities in the country, such as Rome, Milan, Naples and
Turin, are called aree metropolitane
(metropolitan areas) because they include several minor cities and
towns in their areas. There is no population limit for a
city. In the coat of arms, a golden crown tower stands for a
city.
Netherlands
In the
Netherlands a city is called stad, in common with
other Germanic languages.
In medieval times, a settlement had to achieve city-rights to be
called a
stad. In modern times, there's no Dutch law
saying what can be called a city or not, though generally places
with more than 50,000 inhabitants are called a city. Settlements
between 20,000 and 50,000 are most often called
kleine
stad or
stadje, which literally means "little city"
(a more loose translation would be "town"). Settlements under about
20,000 are called
dorp, "village".
The four largest
cities are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The
Hague and Utrecht, which together
form the heart of the Randstad metropolitan conurbation.
Norway
In
Norway a city is
called by and is derived from the Norse word býr meaning
"a place with many buildings". Both cities and towns are
referred to as
by. The status of "city" is granted by the
local authorities if a request for city status has been made and
the area has a population of at least 5000. Since 1997, cities no
longer have special administrative functions. If the area has not
been granted the status of a city it is called
tettsted or
bygd. The terms differ in that a
tettsted has
more concentrated population than a
bygd. A
bygd
is in many ways similar to a village, but the Norwegian term for
village,
landsby, is not used for places in Norway.
Pakistan
There has traditionally been no formal distinction between "City"
or "Town" in Pakistan, although informal distinctions and status
has been as common as in any other country.
Several cities in
what is now Pakistan were traditionally recognized as cities; in
some cases for centuries; Lahore, Multan and
Peshawar are examples. After independence
and the rapid increase in population that followed caused Karachi to become the nations largest city, whie the rapid
industrialisation in the north of the country resulted in new towns
increasing greatly in population; such as Sialkot and Faisalabad, whilst Rawalpindi, traditionally a garrison town became a large city
due to the decision to build a new capital nearby. In 2001,
a new Act formalised the distinction, by granting the 10 largest
cities and metropolitan areas the statis of
city district, which for the first time gave
areas the status of cities.
Poland
In
Poland the word
miasto serves for both town and city. Miasto is the
term applied purely on the basis of the administrative decision of
the central government, and specifically means either:
- a county (gmina or powiat) with a city charter;
- a city within a county, created by granting a city charter to a
smaller town within a county.
These formal distinctions may differentiate larger towns from
smaller ones (such as status as a separate powiat, or the
conferring of the title
prezydent on the
mayor rather than
burmistrz), but none of
these is universally recognized as equivalent to the English
city/town distinction.
Portugal
Like other Iberian languages, in
Portuguese there is a traditional
distinction between cities—
cidades—and towns—
vilas. The difference is defined by law, and a
city must have:
- at least 8,000 electors (more or less 10,000 inhabitants)
- at least half of the following services:
- hospital
- pharmacy
- fire department
- theatre / cultural house
- museum
- library
- hotel services
- basic and secondary schools
- public transport
- gardens / urban parks
In special cases, some towns may be granted the status of city if
they possess historical, cultural or architectonic
importance.
The Portuguese urban settlements
heraldry
reflects the difference between cities, towns and villages, with
the
coat of arms of a city bearing a
crown with 5 towers, the coat of arms of a town bearing a crown
with 4 towers, while the coat of arms of a village bears a crown
with 3 towers. This difference between cities, towns and villages
is still in use in other Portuguese speaking countries, but in
Brazil is no longer in use.
There is also the notion of “
Grande ?rea
Metropolitana”.
There are two main metropolitan
areas—Lisbon (the
capital), in the centre of the country and Porto in the
North. Lisbon
Metropolitan Area has a population that exceeds 3 million.
Greater Metropolitan
Area of Porto has over 2 million inhabitants, although it is
part of the Portuguese Northwestern Agglomeration that has, also,
about 3 million inhabitants.
File:Cast_s_jorge_2.jpg|Lisbon
skyline.File:Rabelo Douro en–Porto.jpg|Porto, the
second city.File:Santuário_do_Sameiro.JPG|
Braga's Sameiro Sanctuary.
File:Funchal Pico da
Cruz.jpg|Funchal, the largest city in the Portuguese
islands.
South Korea
South Korea has a system of dividing into metropolitan cities,
provinces, a special city (Seoul) and one
specially self-governing province (Jeju-do). In South Korea, cities should have a
population of more than 150,000, and if a city has more than
500,000, it would be divided into 2 districts and then
sub-communities follow as a name of dong with similar system of
normal cities. Additionally, if a city's population is over
1,000,000, then it would be promoted to metropolitan city.
Turkey
There is no legal definition of city in Turkey. Older definition
which defines the city as a settlement with more than 20 000
inhabitants is out of use and a city is usually defined as the
administrative center of a province ( ) There are 81 provencial
centers in Turkey. However some of the district centers ) are more
populous and more developed than the provencial centers.
But in 1984 the
metropolitan center concept was
introduced. ( ) According to definition (revised as of 2004) a
metropolitan center is a city with more than 750 000 inhabitants.
At present 16 of the provencial centers are metropolitan
centers.
Ukraine
There is no difference in the Ukrainian language between the
notions of "town" and "city". Both these words are translated into
Ukrainian as "мі?то" ("misto"). In articles of Wikipedia only the
term "city" is used for every Ukrainian locality named "мі?то". The
smallest population of a city of Ukraine can be about 10,000. For
towns which officially are not named "мі?то" it is used a name
"urban-type settlement" ("?елище мі?ького тип?", "selyshche
mis'koho typu") and also (informal) "мі?течко" ("mistechko"), the
latter Ukrainian word is related to the word "мі?то" and can be
translated as "small town".
United Kingdom and Ireland
In the
United
Kingdom (UK), a city is a town which has been
known as a city since time
immemorial, or which has received city status by letters patent—which is normally granted on
the basis of size, importance or royal connection (the traditional
test was whether the town had a cathedral)
to gain city status. For example the small town of Ripon was
granted city status in 1836 to coincide with the creation of the
Diocese of Ripon, but also in recognition of its long-standing role
as a supplier of spurs to royalty. In
the United Kingdom, when people talk about cities, they generally
include the suburbs in that.
Some cathedral cities, such as St David's in Wales and
Wells in England, are quite small, and may not be known as cities in
common parlance. Preston became England's newest city in the year 2002 to
mark the Queen's jubilee, as did Newport in Wales, Stirling in Scotland, and Lisburn and Newry in Northern
Ireland. However, major towns such as Reading, Northampton, Swindon, Warrington and Milton
Keynes all harbour populations between 170,000 and 215,000
inhabitants but are not officially cited as cities.
The
situation in London is a historical anomaly: the City of
Westminster and the City of London are geographically small but historically
significant parts of the Greater London conurbation that have independent city
status.
A
Review of Scotland's Cities led to the Fair City
of Perth,
Scotland, losing city status. By both legal and
traditional definition, a town may be of any size, but must contain
a
market place. A village must contain a
church . A small village without a church is called a
hamlet.
The UK's
five largest cities are generally considered to be London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow, but this is based on the population of the
conurbation as a whole. In terms of formal city boundaries, the
largest include Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Sheffield.
In Ireland the definition of a city is similar to that in the UK,
but with the exception of Dublin, Irish cities are much smaller in
size and population. The three largest cities in the Republic of
Ireland are Dublin, Cork and Limerick, with Kilkenny being the
smallest (although Kilkenny is actually a borough it still has the
right to be referred to as a city).
United States
In the United States (USA), the definition of cities (and town,
villages, townships, etc.) is a matter of state laws and the
definitions vary widely by state. A city may, in some places, be
run by an elected mayor and city council, while a town is governed
by people, select board (or board of trustees), or open town
meeting.
There are some very large towns (such as
Hempstead,
New York, with a population of 755,785 in 2004) and some
very small cities (such as Lake Angelus, Michigan, with a population of 326 in 2000), and the line
between town and city, if it exists at all, varies from state to
state. Cities in the United States do have many
oddities, like Maza,
North Dakota, the smallest city in the country, has only 5
inhabitants, but is still incorporated (note that all incorporated
locations in North Dakota are called "cities" regardless of
size). It does not have an active government, and the
mayoral hand changes frequently (due to the lack of city laws).
California has both towns and cities but the terms "town" and
"city" are considered synonymous. The nation's largest cities
are New York
City, Los
Angeles, Chicago, and Houston.
In some U.S. states, any incorporated town is also called a city.
If a distinction is being made between towns and cities, exactly
what that distinction is often depends on the context. The context
will differ depending on whether the issue is the legal authority
it possesses, the availability of shopping and entertainment, and
the scope of the group of places under consideration. Intensifiers
such as "small town" and "big city" are also common, though the
flip side of each is rarely used.
Some states make a distinction between
villages and other forms of
municipalities.
In some cases, villages combine with larger
other communities to form larger towns; a well-known example of an
urban village is New York City's famed Greenwich Village, which started as a quiet country settlement
but was absorbed by the growing city. The word has often
been co-opted by enterprising developers to make their projects
sound welcoming and friendly.
In
Illinois, cities must have a minimum population of 2,500
but in Nebraska, cities must have a minimum of only 800
residents. In Oregon, Kansas, Kentucky, North
Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa, all
incorporated municipalities are cities. In Ohio, a
municipality automatically becomes a city if it has 5,000 residents
counted in a federal census but it reverts to a village if its
population drops below 5,000. In Nebraska, 5,000 residents is the minimum for a city of
the first class while 800 is the minimum for a city of the second
class. The Constitution of Idaho, Article XII Corporations,
Municipal. Section 1. General laws for cities and towns. Makes no
distinction between incorporated towns or cities.
In all
the New
England states, city status is conferred by the form of
government, not population. Town government has a board of
selectmen or Town Council for the
executive branch, and a
town meeting for the
legislative branch, but unlike the US
Government, the executive acts only as an administrative body and
cannot override the will of town meeting. New England cities, on
the other hand, have a
mayor for the
executive, and a legislature referred to as either the city council
or the board of
aldermen.
In
Virginia, all incorporated municipalities designated as
cities are independent of the
adjacent or surrounding county while a town is an incorporated
municipality which remains a part of an adjacent or surrounding
county. The largest incorporated municipalities by
population are all cities, although some smaller cities have a
smaller population than some towns.
For example, the smallest city of
Norton has a population of 3,904 and the largest town of
Blacksburg has a population of 39,573. The other U.S.
independent cities are Baltimore, Maryland; St. Louis, Missouri; and Carson City, Nevada.
In
Pennsylvania any municipality with more than 10 persons can
incorporate as a borough. Any township or borough with a
population of at least 10,000 can ask the state legislature to
charter as a city.
In Pennsylvania, a village is simply an unincorporated community
within a township.
Global cities
A
global city, also known as a
world
city, is a prominent centre of
trade,
banking,
finance,
innovation, and
markets. The term "global
city", as opposed to
megacity, was coined
by
Saskia Sassen in a seminal 1991
work. Whereas "megacity" refers to any city of enormous size, a
global city is one of enormous power or influence. Global cities,
according to Sassen, have more in common with each other than with
other cities in their host nations.
Notable examples of such cities include
London, New York
City, Paris, Chicago, Singapore, Tokyo and
Seoul.
The notion of global cities is rooted in the concentration of
power and capabilities within all
cities. The city is seen as a container where skills and resources
are concentrated: the better able a city is to concentrate its
skills and resources, the more successful and powerful the city.
This makes the city itself more powerful in the sense that it can
influence what is happening around the world. Following this view
of cities, it is possible to
rank the world's
cities hierarchically.
Critics of the notion point to the different realms of power. The
term
global city is heavily influenced by economic factors
and, thus, may not account for places that are otherwise
significant.
For example, cities like Rome, Delhi, Mumbai, Istanbul, Mecca, Mashhad, Karbala, Jerusalem and Lisbon are
powerful in religious and historical terms but would not be considered "global
cities." Additionally, it has been questioned whether the
city itself can be regarded as an actor.
In 1995, Kanter argued that successful cities can be identified by
three elements: good thinkers (concepts), good makers (competence)
or good traders (
connections). The
interplay of these three elements, Kanter argued, means that good
cities are not planned but managed.
Inner city
In the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term "inner
city" is sometimes used with the connotation of being an area,
perhaps a
ghetto, where people are less
wealthy and where there is more crime. These connotations are less
common in other Western countries, as deprived areas are located in
varying parts of other Western cities. In fact, with the
gentrification of some formerly run-down
central city areas the reverse connotation can apply. In Australia,
for example, the term "outer suburban" applied to a person implies
a lack of sophistication.
In Paris, the inner
city is the richest part of the metropolitan area, where housing is
the most expensive, and where elites and high-income individuals
dwell. In the developing world, economic modernization
brings poor newcomers from the countryside to build haphazardly at
the edge of current settlement (see
favelas,
shacks and
shanty
towns).
The United States, in particular, has a culture of anti-urbanism
that dates back to colonial times. The American
City Beautiful architecture movement of the
late 1800s was a reaction to perceived urban decay and sought to
provide stately civic buildings and boulevards to inspire civic
pride in the motley residents of the urban core. Modern anti-urban
attitudes are to be found in America in the form of a planning
profession that continues to develop land on a low-density suburban
basis, where access to amenities, work and shopping is provided
almost exclusively by car rather than by foot or transit.
However, there is a growing movement in North America called
"
New Urbanism" that calls for a return
to traditional city planning methods where mixed-use zoning allows
people to walk from one type of land-use to another. The idea is
that housing, shopping, office space, and leisure facilities are
all provided within walking distance of each other, thus reducing
the demand for road-space and also improving the efficiency and
effectiveness of
mass transit.
21st century cities
There is a debate about whether
technology and instantaneous
communications are making cities obsolete, or
reinforcing the importance of big cities as centres of the
knowledge economy. Some companies are
building brand new
masterplanned
cities from scratch on
greenfield
sites.
See also
Lists
Social problems in the city
References
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External links