Town

New York City, one of the most representative in the world.

A city is a settlement of human population with political, administrative, economic and religious attributions and functions, unlike rural areas that lack them, totally or partially. This has its material reflection in the presence of specific buildings and in their urban configuration.

A city is an urban space with a high population density, in which commerce, industry and services predominate. It differs from other urban entities by various criteria, including population, population density or legal status, although its distinction varies between countries. The population of a city can vary from a few hundred inhabitants to tens of millions of inhabitants. Cities are the most densely populated areas in the world, for example São Paulo with its nearly 20 million inhabitants has a population density of approximately 7,160 inhabitants per square kilometer, while all of Brazil has just over 22 inhabitants/km². The term city is often used to designate a particular built-up politico-administrative entity. However, the word is also used to describe an area of contiguous development (which may encompass multiple administrative entities). For example, the City of London proper It has approximately 8 million inhabitants. However, when someone refers to the city of London, they usually refer to its metropolitan area, that is, the whole of its urbanized area, which has approximately 15 million inhabitants. Another clear example is the Mexican city of Guadalajara, which has a metropolitan area made up of 13 municipalities, and whose points are distributed throughout the metropolitan area, which is popularly known as Guadalajara. Mexico City and its metropolitan area with more than 20 million inhabitants is another example. The confusion that is created when talking about the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area could also be used as an example, since Greater Buenos Aires together with the City Autonomous City of Buenos Aires are confused as a single city, "Buenos Aires", but Greater Buenos Aires is part of the Province of Buenos Aires, and the city of Buenos Aires is the capital of the Argentine Republic and they are governed by different institutions, In addition, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires has self-government capacities almost identical to those of an Argentine province. Tokyo, often incorrectly described as a city, is actually a province of Japan, made up of 23 different neighborhoods. Santiago de Chile is a city made up of 40 municipalities, the whole group is generally known as Greater Santiago.

Concept of city

With the name of city There are extremely different realities: the Portuguese town of Trancoso (left), since 2004 it exceeds 10 000 inhabitants (10889), which meets the usual numerical criterion used. On the other hand, Madrid (right), with 3 213 271 inhabitants, is very commonly designated with its medieval title of villa, or with its double condition Villa and Corte.

The European Statistical Conference in Prague, held in 1966, proposed, without acceptance, to consider agglomerations of more than 50,000 inhabitants and those of between 2,000 and 50,000 inhabitants as cities as long as the population dedicated to agriculture did not exceed 25% over the total. From 50,000 inhabitants, all agglomerations are considered cities, as long as they are concentrated, generally in collective and high-rise buildings, and are mainly dedicated to activities in the secondary and tertiary sectors (industry, commerce and services). This definition has fallen into disuse, so, in the absence of a global rule, each country has created its own rules adapted to its particular characteristics.

View of Barcelona Cathedral, capital of Catalonia, second city of Spain in population, after Madrid

Mexico City and its metropolitan area have more than 23.9 million inhabitants

The political concept of city is applied mainly to urban conglomerates with capital status and greater importance in the region and that assumes the powers of the State or nation. It will be the capital city, but by extension the denomination is applied to any administrative entity with some autonomy at the municipal level, with other denominations, such as town, being generic and optional.

Not all cities are characterized by large skyscrapers.^{[chuckles]required]} In Europe, classic cities like Lisbon stand out for an architecture of conservative-style buildings.

In the religious concept, both in the High Middle Ages and in other periods such as the Renaissance and before the XII century, it was only a city that within its walls had a cathedral where a bishop held his own chair; since in the past the cathedrals were also educational centers. In some European countries such as France or Spain, during the Middle Ages and the Inquisition, within the political concept, only a city that had its own cathedral or that was the seat of an archdiocese was considered as such, and it was even the case that in a In the same city with more than one archdiocese, more than one cathedral was built, in dedication to each patron.

It is therefore an administrative definition of the political state, geographic region or autonomous community, which has a central city and smaller towns or cities. Urban geography and urban sociology study both aspects from the point of view of human geography and sociology with human ecology. Likewise, urban ecology studies the city as an ecosystem and analyzes the flows of matter and energy between the city and its environment.

Different definitions

The definition of what is understood under the concept of "city" not only varies according to the specific laws or regulations of each country, but also according to the different appreciations of each specialist. Some of these interpretations are:

Max Sorre: an agglomeration of men more or less considerable, dense and permanent, with a high degree of social organization: generally independent for their food of the territory on which it is developed, and implying through its system a life of active relations, necessary for the sustainment of its industry, its trade and its functions.

Max Derruau: The city is an important agglomeration organized for collective life and where a notable part of the population lives from non-agricultural activities.

Kingsley Davis: A city is a community of considerable magnitude and high population density that houses a wide variety of non-agricultural specialized workers, amen of a cultural and intellectual elite.

Manuel de Terán: It is a larger group of men over a relatively small space, which they densely occupy, that they use and organize to inhabit and make their lives, according to their social structure and their economic and cultural activity.

P. George: "small cities" are: dense housing groups within which all functional displacements would be carried out on foot; this leads to individualizing nuclei whose population ranges from less than 10,000 to more than 50 000 inhabitants, according to the regions.

The city is a physical, tangible reality. But it is also unequivocally a social construction: it is the project of a society, of a particular place and moment, with its ideology, culture, ethics and values, its social relations in interdependence with an ever complex economy.

The Dictionary of the French Academy (Dictionnaire de l'Académie française), from the 1694 edition to the 1835 edition, defined the city (ville) as “the gathering of many houses arranged in streets and enclosed within a common enclosure that is usually made of walls and moats”. But this definition is very outdated. Today, the Treasury of the French language (Trésor de la langue française) says: “relatively large conglomerate whose inhabitants have diversified professional activities, especially in the tertiary sector”.

The Dictionary of the Spanish language, of the Royal Spanish Academy, defines the city as a «set of buildings and streets, governed by a town hall, whose dense and numerous population is dedicated to common to non-agricultural activities.

The city title

In the political organization of the territory, in which the various population centers had different privileges, the title of city was given to some of them and gave them greater preferences than to towns. In the same sense as the towns, which used to obey the common jurisdiction granted by the king (usually he was their founder), contrary to the anteiglesias or villages (population centers under the jurisdiction of a Lord), the status of city was the recognition of some singular event in which the population had actively participated.

Gazetteer of Spain

In the gazetteers of Spain, there are the titles of «city» and «villa», in the case of qualifications granted or traditionally recognized. Both categories correspond, mainly, to urban entities. Thus, according to the Dictionary of the Spanish language of the Royal Spanish Academy, one of the meanings of city is:

4. Title of some populations that enjoyed greater preeminence than the villas.

Spanish language dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, 22nd edition.

The differentiation between city and town bears no relation to the current size or importance of the entity. For example, the city of Madrid is the capital of Spain and has more inhabitants than the city of Barcelona. Villa is the town that has a privilege that the king gave to the inhabitants of that town, either on their own merits, for having a large population, or for having paid some amount of money by the neighbors themselves.

Cities are also considered episcopal sees (Astorga, Barbastro, Burgo de Osma, Calahorra, Coria, Ciudad Rodrigo, Guadix, Ibiza, Jaca, Mondoñedo, Monzón, Orihuela, Plasencia, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Segorbe, Sigüenza, Solsona, Tarazona, Tudela, Tuy, Urgel and Vich) and former heads of historical administrative territories (Almagro, Sagunto, Toro, Trujillo...).

Nomenclators of Cuba

The Cuban National Statistics Office recognizes urban populations with more than 20,000 inhabitants as cities, while urban populations between 2,000 and 20,000 inhabitants are classified as towns. Within cities there are three categories:

• First (more than 100,000 hectares)
• Second (more than 50 000 hectares)
• Third order (more than 20 000 hectares)

This classification is independent of the political-administrative status of the city, however 13 of the 15 provincial capitals are first-order cities and 72 of the 168 municipalities in the country have a city as their capital.

Nomenclators of Chile

During the Colony and the first century of the Republic, the status of city in Chile could only be obtained by decree, be it royal or governmental, and only in the case of those localities that had previously been classified as towns. Then this way of cataloging cities was left in disuse.

Currently, the classification of city is carried out, for purely statistical purposes, by the National Institute of Statistics, which establishes that cities are urban localities whose population is equal to or greater than five thousand (5000) inhabitants. Also, classify cities into:

• La Metrópoli de Santiago o Gran Santiago, capital and greater urban representation of the country.
• The other conurbations resulting from the union between two or more urban centers of origin and independent development, such as the Great Valparaíso, the Great Conception, or the conurbation La Serena-Coquimbo.

History

Genoa in 1493

The industrial city of Tampere, in 1837

Central portion map of Detroit, United States, 1895

The history of the world's cities is generally long, since the first cities would have emerged between fifteen and five thousand years ago, as permanent settlements with little complexity. Sedentary societies that live in cities are often called civilizations. The branch of history and urbanism in charge of the study of cities and the urbanization process is urban history. The first true cities are sometimes considered those large permanent settlements where their inhabitants were no longer the simple owners of the areas near the settlement, but began to work in more specialized occupations in the city, where trade, food provision and power were centralized.

Using this definition, the earliest known cities appeared in Mesopotamia (Ur, for example), along the Nile River, in the Indus Valley, and in China between approximately seven to five thousand years ago, generally being the result of growth of small villages and/or the amalgamation of small settlements. Before this time, the settlements rarely reached any significant size, although there are exceptional cases such as Jericho, Çatal Höyük and Mehrgarh. Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, both cities in the Indus Valley, were the most populous of these ancient cities, with a combined population estimated at between 100 and 150,000.

The growth of ancient and medieval empires contributed to the appearance, in the Mediterranean Sea, of large capital cities and provincial administration headquarters, such as Babylon, Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage, Seleucia del Tigris, Pataliputra (located in present-day India), Chang'an (located in the present-day People's Republic of China), Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), and, later and successively, various Chinese and Indian cities. Rome had more than a million inhabitants in the first century B.C. C., being considered by many as the only city to surpass this mark until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In ancient Rome, the city was called (civitas) to the area inhabited by citizens (cívis), which were those who possessed citizen rights, regardless of their activity (outside the industry, agriculture or services). Other large administrative, commercial, industrial, and ceremonial centers emerged in other areas, with Baghdad being considered the first city to break the million-population mark held by Rome.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, a city was both a political-administrative entity and a grouping of houses. In medieval and Renaissance Spain, a city was the population that had no lord and was ruled directly by the king. He had the privilege of sending attorneys to the courts to negotiate the fees and taxes that could be imposed, in exchange for privileges. This classification of city was independent of size, thus Madrid, the capital of Spain since 1561, was not a city but a town, a status it still retains. Exceptionally, some cities, such as Venice, Genoa or Lübeck, became powerful city-states, sometimes taking control of nearby lands or establishing vast maritime empires. Such a phenomenon was not limited only to Europe, but there were cases such as that of Sakai, which had a considerable degree of autonomy in medieval Japan. In Europe, Venice, Rotterdam, Florence and Lisbon were considered the most important cities of this time, all of which grew under the eaves of their ports and played an important role in commercial exchange.

As the city-states located on the Mediterranean and Baltic seaboards began to disappear from the 16th century, the great European capitals benefited from the increase in trade that arose as a result of the colonization of America and the establishment of a transatlantic economy. By the end of the 18th century, London had become the largest city in the world, with a population approaching one million, with Paris, Baghdad, Beijing, Istanbul, and Kyoto as other major cities. But it was the start of the Industrial Revolution and the growth of modern industry, at the end of the 18th century, that allowed the massive urbanization and the emergence of new large cities, first in Europe, and later in other regions, as the new opportunities created in the cities caused large numbers of migrants from rural communities to settle in urban areas.

Cities today

Geography

Global urbanization towards 1995

Big cities today are much larger and more populous than in the past. An example is Paris, which in 1400 had 225,000 inhabitants in an 8 km² area. Today, the city has 2.2 million inhabitants and 105 km², and its metropolitan region has more than 11.2 million inhabitants and 14,518 km² of area.

In the United States and Canada, the most common pattern of public roads is the hippodamic or checkerboard plan, that is, road arteries running parallel to each other, with other parallel streets cutting them perpendicularly. This system was also used for thousands of years in China, and by the Spanish when founding cities in America. In Europe, since most cities were not planned in advance, their system of public roads, street, and avenues spread haphazardly throughout the city. Many of the walls that surrounded the old European cities gave rise to modern high-capacity public roads.

Commonly, large cities have a financial district, where financial institutions, headquarters of large companies and shopping centers are located. People from all parts of the city (as well as neighboring cities) flock to this financial center to work every day. This is generally small in area, but can house up to tens of thousands of jobs, thanks to the existence of skyscrapers. The London City region proper, for example, the financial center of the London metropolitan region, has 2,900 km² and 8.6 million permanent inhabitants, and more than 300,000 people from other places in the metropolitan region go to the City to work every day.

Administration

Helsinki, the largest city in Finland

Built-in (grey) areas extend beyond the borders of London and its districts

The administration of cities corresponds to different institutions, depending on each country. Among the most common denominations used to designate the administrative body of a city are municipality, city council and prefecture. These organizations are responsible for the planning of the city, and according to the competences given by the respective national legislations, they can be in charge of the administration of the public transport system, the school system and public libraries, police and fire departments. The administration of a city is generally headed by a mayor or municipal president and/or a council, all elected by popular vote (in democratic regimes). He is usually in charge of looking after the interests of his fellow citizens, representing them before the highest hierarchical authority, in addition to promoting local policies to improve their quality of life, such as health or sports programs, and fighting crime, among other various tasks. Its budget generally comes from national funds and certain own income, such as trade permits, building or specific taxes.

Some large cities are usually administratively subdivided into communes, neighborhoods, districts, delegations or districts.

Economy

Puerto Madero, where there is evidence of the dynamism of the construction sector in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Currently, the economy of cities is general and highly diversified, varying between cities. Since the urban economy is never based solely on a certain economic sector, many cities depend mainly on only one, or a few, economic sectors. Some cities, however, still rely heavily on agriculture and ranching, such as Saskatoon. The economy of large cities tends to be more diversified, but this is not always the case. In larger cities, the manufacturing industry is almost always one of the main sources of income, generating thousands of jobs, although industry is no longer the largest economic activity in cities, transferring this position to the service sector. In several large cities, thousands of people work daily in offices and financial institutions. Cities like New York, Tokyo, London, Paris and Hong Kong are large financial hubs, where this activity is the main source of income for the city. In other cities, such as Rome, Quebec and Foz do Iguazú, they are highly dependent on tourism. Several cities have a highly diversified economy, that is, where all sectors have approximately the same importance, so they are less vulnerable to economic recessions compared to those cities that depend on a particular economic sector.

Metropolis

Tokyo, Japan Metropolis

A metropolis is a large population center, consisting of a large central city (sometimes two or more) and its adjacent area of influence, made up of other smaller and relatively close cities and/or towns. Generally, metropolises form conurbations, forming a single urban area. For example, Mexico City is a central city, and with Naucalpan, Ecatepec de Morelos, Tultitlán, and other adjacent towns together they form a conurbation, known as the "Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico".

However, a metropolis does not necessarily need to be made up of a single contiguous urbanized area, and the union of two or more urbanized areas interspersed with rural areas can be designated as a metropolis. The cities that make up a metropolis have a high degree of integration with each other. A region made up of various metropolises located close to each other is known as a megalopolis. Currently, the most populous metropolises in the world, with between 10 and 40 million inhabitants, are Tokyo, Mexico City, Seoul, New York, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.

Urban growth

New York, one of the most influential cities in the world economy.

According to reliable calculations, the growth of the urban population is astonishing, exceeding one million people weekly. More than two hundred cities in developing countries have more than one million inhabitants, and there are some twenty metropolises with more than ten million residents. Furthermore, the increase is not expected to abate. According to a report by the Worldwatch Institute, the Nigerian city of Lagos, "will have 25,000,000 inhabitants in the year 2015, making it the thirteenth largest city in the world to be the third."

Global Cities

A global city is a major banking, commercial, financial, political, and industrial center. The term global city (not to be confused with megalopolis or megacity) was invented by sociologist Saskia Sassen in 1991. The expression megacity refers to a large urban area, while a global city is distinguished by its great influence at the regional, national and international level. Global cities, according to Sassen, have more similar characteristics among themselves than with other cities in the same country.

London, the most important city and capital of the United Kingdom. It's an example of a global city.

The notion of global city visualizes the city as a container where skills and resources are concentrated. The more a city is able to concentrate skills and resources, the more prosperous and powerful it becomes, becoming powerful enough to influence what happens around the world. Critics of this notion allege the ambiguity of the expression "power". In a global city, power refers primarily to economic and/or political power, and therefore may not include cities that are powerful in other ways. For example, cities like Rome or Jerusalem are powerful in historical and religious terms.

Urban parks

Central Park, New York. Central Park is one of the most famous urban parks in the world.

In 2000, municipal leaders signed the Aalborg Charter, a community initiative known as Agenda 21, which promoted the sustainable development of cities under environmental principles. The main guiding guidelines for the actions to be undertaken were focused on the cycles of natural resources in cities, the quality of the urban environment and territorial and urban planning. Regarding the quality of the urban environment in particular, the actions should be aimed at improving and protecting the natural urban environment with adequate land use planning, the creation of parks, green areas and areas for social use and the recovery of spaces of interest.. This Agenda 21 arises from the concern about the massive global urbanization. It is expected that within 35 years the number of people living in cities will multiply by three, which makes a change necessary to guarantee the quality of life in future cities. Traditionally, parks have fulfilled three functions: satisfying the recreational and leisure demands of citizens, improving the quality of life and helping to structure the urban fabric. These functions are of vital importance for the life of the population within the cities, however, although the social consideration of these green areas is very positive, a greater involvement is necessary on the part of all the actors (governmental institutions, citizens and the media). of communication) to ensure that parks contribute effectively to the sustainability of cities.

Distinction between towns, villages and cities

The difference between town, village and city is understood differently in different parts of the world. Some languages have a tripartite distinction, such as the Iberian languages Portuguese and Spanish, for example: vila (villa), povo (town), and cidade (city). Others have a bipartite distinction, such as French: village (town/village) and ville (city).

Although in the Spanish-speaking world, there is no universal consensus on the exact distinctions. The term can be used for towns endowed with city status, or for a town that exercises control over other neighboring towns. However, the terms are usually understood like this in the Spanish-speaking world:

• Aldea: very small population nucleus without any administration staff working either in full or in part.
• Villa: small population center, with some administration staff working, but without own Town Hall.
• People: population center, with own Town Hall and other administration staff.
• City: cores, with own Town Hall and staff for almost all administrative services. It is considered cities the episcopal headquarters, the capitals of a territory or administrative entity (State, region, province...), those of Roman origin founded as such and/or the cities that have been capitals of some political-administrative entity of the past (kingdom, province...).

The definition is blurred, because historically the administration was understood in a religious way, that is to say: in the village there were unattended hermitages, in the towns there were parishes with priests shared with other towns, in the towns there were permanent priests and in the cities had religious authorities (bishop). With the secularization of Hispanicity, this historical definition has lost its meaning and the use of the terms is now somewhat ambiguous.

Although city can refer to an agglomeration, suburbs, and even satellites, it does not apply to a conurbation (group) of distinct urban areas, nor to a metropolitan area.