Module 4: An Urban World

urbanization

The spread and growth of cities; an increasing proportion of a population living in urban areas (cities and towns).

city

A legally incorporated self-governing unit; an inhabited place of greater size, population, or importance than a town or village.

suburb

A residential or mixed-use (residential and employment) area on the periphery of the city, typically displaying some degree of homogeneity in terms of economic status, socio-cultural characteristics, or built form.

urban area

The spatial extent of the built-up area surrounding and including an incorporated municipality, such as a city; typically assessed by some combination of population size, population density, and the nature of residents’ employment.

metropolitan area

A region comprising two or more functionally connected urban areas and the less densely populated (or built-up) areas between them; examples include metropolitan New York and the Greater Toronto Area.

urban sprawl

The largely unplanned expansion of an urban area into rural areas.

megacity

A metropolitan area with a population of more than 10 million.

urban hearth

An area where urban living originated; examples include Mesopotamia, Indus Valley (Pakistan and India), Huang Valley (China), and Nile Valley (Egypt).

urbanism

The urban way of life; associated with a declining sense of community and increasingly complex social and economic organization as a result of increasing size, density, and heterogeneity.

agricultural surplus

Agricultural production that exceeds the sustenance needs of the producer and is sold to or exchanged with others.

agora

The centre of ancient Greek civic life; the area where public meetings, trials of justice, social interaction, and commercial exchange took place.

acropolis

The fortified religious centre of cities in ancient Greece; the literal translation is “highest point in the city.”

forum

The centre of Roman civic, commercial, administrative, and ceremonial life; combined the functions of the ancient Greek acropolis and agora.

mercantilism

A school of economic thought dominant in Europe in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries that argued for the involvement of the state in economic life so as to increase national wealth and power.

entrepot

A city, usually a port, that functions as an intermediary for trade and transshipment and that exports both raw materials and manufactured goods.

central place theory

A theory to explain the spatial distribution of urban centres with respect to their size and function.

central place

An urban centre that provides goods and services for the surrounding population; may take the form of a hamlet, village, town, city, or megacity.

consumer services

Services provided primarily for individual consumers, such as retail, hospitality, food, leisure, health care, education, and social welfare; represent approximately 50 per cent of employment in most countries of the more developed world.

hinterland

The market area surrounding a central place; the spatial area from which the providers of goods and services in a central place draw their customers.

range

The maximum distance that people are prepared to travel to obtain a particular good or service.

threshold

The minimum number of people (market size) required to support the existence of a particular economic function.

rank-size distribution

A descriptive regularity among cities in an urban system; the numerical relationship between city size and rank in an urban system; sometimes referred to as the rank-size rule.

primate city

The largest city in an urban system, usually the capital, which dominates its political, economic, and social life; a city that is more than twice the size of the next-largest city in the system.

business services

Services provided primarily for other businesses, including financial, administrative, and professional activities such as accounting, advertising, banking, consulting, insurance, law, and marketing.

global city

A city that is an important node in the global economy; a dominant city in the global urban hierarchy; sometimes referred to as a world city.

gateway city

A city that is a key point of entry to a major geographic region or country for goods or people, often via an international airport, container shipping port, or major rail centre; a city in which several different cultural traditions are absorbed and assimilated.

supranational organization

A multinational grouping of independent states, where power is delegated to an authority by member governments.