Attributions of the City Reader
- Kingsley Davis
Demography: de study of human populations
Urbanization is a process wherein an increasingly
larger proportion of the total population of a region
and/or country live in cities (as opposed to rural). This
does not necessarily mean that the rural population
shrinks, just that the urban population is growing
faster.
Kingsley Davis pioneered the study of historical urban
demography and was fascinated by the history of
world urbanization: the increase over time of the
proportion of the total human population that is
urban as opposed to rural.
Kingsley Davis: urbanization is caused by rural-urban
migration, not because of other possible factors such as differential birth and mortality
rates. 3 stages:
1. Urbanization slowly increases
2. Rapid urbanization due to the Industrial Revolution
3. Urbanization flattening out as the area is almost fully urbanized
- Gordon Childe
‘’revolutions’’ instead of ‘’Ages’’ three age system (stone, bronze, iron) discarded by
Childe Instead – four stages intersected by ‘’revolutions’’
Paleolithic Neolithic (tools/fire)
Neolithic urban (agriculture/trade)
Urbanindustrial (steam/coal/iron/fertilizers/mass-production,
social change)
Industrial ??? (internet, globalization)
The urban reward is connected to site instead of land-use, because urban activities
(specialization: trade, craftsmanship, artisanship, politics, clerics) as opposed to rural
activities benefit from proximity and density and isn’t dependent on the availability of arable
land for creating profit.
- H.D.F. Kitto
‘’polis’’‘’city-state’’‘’self-governing community’’. The polis was a living community;
almost an extended family. While the Greeks were private in many ways, Kitto notes that
their public life was essentially communistic. The Polis as a social institution defined the very
nature of begin human for its citizens. Kitto attributes the rise of the polis to the character of
the Greeks themselves.
He also expresses nostalgia for human qualities of life in the polis that appear threatened
nowadays.
- Henri Pirenne
- Kingsley Davis
Demography: de study of human populations
Urbanization is a process wherein an increasingly
larger proportion of the total population of a region
and/or country live in cities (as opposed to rural). This
does not necessarily mean that the rural population
shrinks, just that the urban population is growing
faster.
Kingsley Davis pioneered the study of historical urban
demography and was fascinated by the history of
world urbanization: the increase over time of the
proportion of the total human population that is
urban as opposed to rural.
Kingsley Davis: urbanization is caused by rural-urban
migration, not because of other possible factors such as differential birth and mortality
rates. 3 stages:
1. Urbanization slowly increases
2. Rapid urbanization due to the Industrial Revolution
3. Urbanization flattening out as the area is almost fully urbanized
- Gordon Childe
‘’revolutions’’ instead of ‘’Ages’’ three age system (stone, bronze, iron) discarded by
Childe Instead – four stages intersected by ‘’revolutions’’
Paleolithic Neolithic (tools/fire)
Neolithic urban (agriculture/trade)
Urbanindustrial (steam/coal/iron/fertilizers/mass-production,
social change)
Industrial ??? (internet, globalization)
The urban reward is connected to site instead of land-use, because urban activities
(specialization: trade, craftsmanship, artisanship, politics, clerics) as opposed to rural
activities benefit from proximity and density and isn’t dependent on the availability of arable
land for creating profit.
- H.D.F. Kitto
‘’polis’’‘’city-state’’‘’self-governing community’’. The polis was a living community;
almost an extended family. While the Greeks were private in many ways, Kitto notes that
their public life was essentially communistic. The Polis as a social institution defined the very
nature of begin human for its citizens. Kitto attributes the rise of the polis to the character of
the Greeks themselves.
He also expresses nostalgia for human qualities of life in the polis that appear threatened
nowadays.
- Henri Pirenne
