CITY

a relatively permanent and highly organized centre of population, of greater size or importance than a town or village. The name city is given to certain urban communities by virtue of some legal or conventional distinction. It also refers to a particular type of community, the urban community, and its culture, often called urbanism. In legal terms, in the United States, for example, a city is an urban area incorporated by special or general act of a state legislature. Its charter of incorporation prescribes the extent of municipal powers and the frame of local government, subject to constitutional limitation and amendment. In common usage, however, the name is applied to almost every American urban centre, whether legally a city or not, and without much regard to actual size or importance. In Australia and Canada, city is a term applied to the larger units of municipal government under state and provincial authority, respectively. New Zealand has followed British precedent since the abolition of the provinces in 1876; the more populous towns are called boroughs under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1933 and earlier legislation. In the United Kingdom itself, city is merely an official style accorded towns either in their historical identity as episcopal sees or as the beneficiaries honoris causa of a special act of the crown (the first town so distinguished was Birmingham in 1889). Except for the ancient City of London (an area of about 677 acres in central London under the jurisdiction of the lord mayor), the title has no significance in local government in the United Kingdom. In all the other countries of the world, the definition of city similarly follows local tradition or preference. City government is almost everywhere the creation of higher political authority, state or national. Some European countries have adopted general municipal codes which permit centralized administrative control over subordinate areas through a hierarchy of departmental prefects and local mayors. Socialist countries also employ a hierarchical system of local councils that correspond to, and are under the authority of, governing bodies at higher levels of government. In English-speaking countries, devolution of powers to the cities occurs through legislative acts that delegate limited self-government to local corporations. As a type of community, the city may be regarded as a relatively permanent concentration of population, together with its diverse habitations, social arrangements, and supporting activities, occupying a more or less discrete site, and having a cultural importance that differentiates it from other types of human settlement and association. In its elementary functions and rudimentary characteristics, however, a city is not clearly distinguishable from a town or even a large village. Mere size of population, surface area, or density of settlement are not in themselves sufficient criteria of distinction, while many of their social correlates (division of labour, nonagricultural activity, central-place functions, and creativity) characterize in varying degree all urban communities from the small country town to the giant metropolis. a relatively permanent and highly organized centre of population, of greater size or importance than a town or village. The first cities appeared in Neolithic times when the development of agricultural techniques assured surplus crop yields large enough to sustain a permanent group of nonagricultural workers. Continuous settlement led to the use of more permanent building materials such as brick and stone. Larger populations led to the need for social control, transportation facilities, and rural hinterlands to sustain the urban population. Sizable cities were flourishing from about 3000 BC in Mesopotamia, in the Indus River valley, along the Yellow River, and along the Nile River. The Hellenistic period saw the creation of the city-state. Greek city-states (polis) were governed by their citizens and dominated the surrounding rural areas, living in part from tribute extracted from rural surpluses. The beginnings of Western cultural and artistic life flourished in this setting. The growth of trade led to the foundation of Greek colony cities all over the Mediterranean. The dominance of the city-states was ended by the Roman Empire, which had itself started in the Roman city-state. The growth of Rome as the empire's administrative and economic centre created vast new problems of urban provision and social control. Roman achievements in the building of aqueducts to ensure water supplies and paved roads to ensure the flow of resources were unsurpassed for centuries. Roman technology spread throughout Europe as Roman conquerors founded dependent settlements. From very early periods cities were surrounded by walls to protect them from rivals and nomadic marauders. As the Roman Empireand the Pax Romana associated with its ruledisintegrated under pressure from successive waves of barbarian migrations and invasions, walled towns and cities provided some degree of local stability and defense. A strong civic culture developed in the medieval city. Some cities, such as the great Italian trading centres of Venice, Genoa, and Florence, even returned to the autonomous, flourishing self-sufficiency of the early city-states. As Europe emerged from the Middle Ages the cities became the base for economic and commercial expansion. Market fairs, which had had only temporary significance in the medieval period, became established in cities, providing a base for a growing commercial class. At the same time, the growth of power of the nation-state led to the cities coming increasingly under the political control of centralized government. The city exchanged its independent political role for important administrative functions in the process of nation-state consolidation. The Industrial Revolution transformed city life. It made possible the greater productivity that allowed Europe, and later other areas, to sustain far denser concentrations of people. Furthermore, the factory system, as the most important element in the industrialized production processes of the 18th and 19th centuries, required the concentration of the workforce near sources of power and transportation. Factory cities blossomed rapidly in England, northwestern Europe, and the northeastern United States. At the same time older, established cities greatly increased in size. In 1850 less than 7 percent of the world's population lived in urban centres of more than 5,000 inhabitants. By 1950, 30 percent did, and the figure was over 60 percent in the fully industrialized countries of Europe, Japan, and the United States. Rapid industrial transformation and population growth have tended to overwhelm traditional urban society. Industrialized cities frequently suffer from lack of adequate housing, sanitation, and recreational space. Factories tend to pollute air and water resources. Migrants from rural areas (and in some cases from foreign countries) are not easily absorbed into the existing urban culture and institutions. Twentieth-century transportation technologyin particular the automobilehas led to the creation of suburbs and residential districts where living conditions are less crowded and more removed from industrial pollution. However, this so-called urban sprawl has created a new set of problems, such as traffic congestion in the central city and pollution from automobile exhaust. Many factories and residences erected in earlier periods of industrial expansion have become aged and obsolete. Businesses and factories have moved to newer plants and offices in the suburbs, leaving certain segments of the inner city population stranded with high unemployment. Local governments have sought to alleviate these problems by planning and coordinating new construction as well as providing for maintenance of the urban infrastructure. Additional reading Lewis Mumford, The City in History (1961), a historical review of the city with special attention to physical features and with philosophical observations and excellent illustrations; R.E. Park, Human Communities (1952), a pioneer sociological analysis of urbanization; Henri Pirenne, Medieval Cities (1925), a historical treatment of the emergence of cities from the collapse of the Roman Empire through the Middle Ages; Gideon Sjoberg, The Pre-Industrial City (1960), a comparative study of preindustrial cities with special focus on common characteristics; R.E. Turner, The Great Cultural Traditions, vol. 1, The Ancient Cities (1941), a historical synthesis of the origin of cities from Neolithic times to Greek civilization; A.F. Weber, The Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century (1899, reprinted 1963), history and statistics of urban growth in the 19th century in the United States, Europe, and selected Asian, African, and Latin-American countries. Carl Abbott, The New Urban America: Growth and Politics in Sunbelt Cities (1981), describes the post-World War II growth of cities in the southern United States.For historical background on urban planning, see Erwin A. Gutkind, International History of City Development, 5 vol. (196470). For modern practice, see W.I. Goodman and Eric C. Freund (eds.), Principles and Practice of Urban Planning, 4th ed. (1968); Michael P. Brooks, Social Planning and City Planning (1970); Kevin Lynch, Site Planning, 2nd ed. (1971); Frederick H. Bair, Jr., Planning Cities: Selected Writings on Principles and Practice (1970); and Charles Abrams, Man's Struggle for Shelter in an Urbanizing World (1964).The most useful general description of city government in many countries is S. Humes and E.M. Martin, The Structure of Local Government: A Comparative Survey of 81 Countries (1969). A much more detailed study of a selected group of large cities may be found in W.A. Robson and D.E. Regan (eds.), Great Cities of the World: Their Government, Politics and Planning, 3rd rev. ed. (1971). Local government in Europe is considered in W. Haus and A. Krebsbach, Gemeindeordnungen in Europa (1967), a reference volume in English, French, German, and Italian; and W. Anderson (ed.), Local Government in Europe (1939). For the United States, see H.F. Alderfer, American Local Government and Administration (1956); H. Zink, Government of Cities in the United States (1939); and E.C. Banfield and J.Q. Wilson, City Politics (1963). The history of English city government may be studied in Sidney and Beatrice Webb, The Manor and the Borough, 2 vol. (1908, reprinted 1963); J. Redlich and F.W. Hirst, The History of Local Government in England (1903, reprinted 1958); and J.H. Thomas, Town Government in the Sixteenth Century (1933). Modern history is covered in H.J. Laski, W.I. Jennings, and W.A. Robson (eds.), A Century of Municipal Progress 18351935 (1935); J.H. Warren, The English Local Government System (1968); G. Rhodes, The Government of London: The Struggle for Reform (1970); and W.A. Robson, Local Government in Crisis, 2nd ed. (1968). The best historical work dealing with Germany is W.H. Dawson, Municipal Life and Government in Germany (1914). R.H. Wells, German Cities (1932), carries the story up to the collapse of democracy in face of the Nazi regime. For a recent statement, see Kevin Lynch, A Theory of Good City Form (1981).On French city government, see B. Chapman, Introduction to French Local Government (1953), and Prefects and Provincial France (1955); and F. Ridley and J. Blondel, Public Administration in France (1964). For Italy the only relevant work is R.C. Fried, The Italian Prefects (1963). On Latin America there is very little of value, but some information may be found in Jacques Lambert, Amrique Latine, structures sociales et institutions politiques (1963; Eng. trans., Latin America: Social Structure and Political Institutions, 1967). Local government in the former Soviet Union is discussed in L.G. Churchward, Contemporary Soviet Government (1968); L. Schapiro, The Government and Politics of the Soviet Union, 2nd ed. (1967); H. McClosky and J.E. Turner, The Soviet Dictatorship (1960); and D.J.R. Scott, Russian Political Institutions, 4th ed. (1969). The special problems of metropolitan areas are analyzed in R.E. Dickinson, City Region and Regionalism (1947); and in the reports of the World Conference Of Local Government, Local Government Structure and Organization: Problems of Metropolitan Areas (1962).