Cities represent the pinnacle of human settlement development. They are, in fact, global social systems , complete in every part, inclusive of all the different subsystems that form a social system as a whole: we find in them subsets of economic, cultural, and political relations, as well as the presence of different spheres of activity. From its earliest days, from Tonnies to Durkheim , from Simmel to the Chicago School , sociology has been and continues to be interested in those urban areas that are growing and modernizing over time, because they better account for what interests sociology most: social change.
The birth of cities
The first major turning point in the history of human settlements corresponds to the Neolithic revolution and the agricultural development, about 10 years ago. This important transformation process laid the foundation for the birth of the city for three reasons:
1) the sharp increase in food production;
2) the availability of a food surplus which can be exchanged;
3) the increase of the population density and its “sedentarization”.
We thus move from the presence of small nomadic groups, whose sustenance came mainly from hunting or from harvesting, to a new social context characterised by larger groups, with a greater density and above all stable, in which a greater work divisionPart of the population can engage in activities other than agriculture, such as crafts, political activities, and religious activities. This creates the conditions for the development of a local, "urban" society.
The medieval city
The connotation of cities in the medieval period was different, highlighting a different composition of society and the social, political, and economic organization of that period. The medieval city, in fact, arose from the breaking of feudal bonds with the emergence of the new municipal authority. Individuals, detaching themselves from the feudalism, they gather to begin commercial and trading activities in small villages which are later surrounded by walls for defensive reasons. The population settled in the city is however smaller (estimated at 10-12%) than the majority who still live in the campaign, thus being an exception throughout the pre-modern era.
Industrial revolution = urban revolution
A moment of great transformation in the history of urbanism began in the 800th century with the Industrial Revolution. Starting from England, and then moving on to the rest of Europe and North America, with the growth of productivity thanks to industrial innovation, the need for the majority of the population to dedicate itself to agriculture disappears, and at the same time production and exchange of goods in national and international scenarios. In this period, representing an indispensable support for the industry given the dmanpower availability, the provision of a first outlet market but also one service network and infrastructure necessary for production, the city grew rapidly: the population began to increasingly live in the urban center. To facilitate its expansion, the walls were torn down and new neighborhoods were built, even hastily, to house the new working-class population, characterized, however, by low environmental quality, poorly connected to the center e poorly equipped with services.
The contemporary city
The contemporary city is today distinguished by the influence of globalization and the technological developmentWith the post-Fordist reorganization, we find the presence of large factories not only in large cities but also outside them, in peripheral areas and sometimes relocated to various points of the globe (especially in low-development areas relocated to take advantage of the lower costs of production and labor). In modern "Cities"instead they develop and grow tertiary activity, now the hub of the economy where they have all the advantages related to services, infrastructure, and a greater availability of workers and customers. Furthermore, as he pointed out Saskia Sassen, these global cities They are increasingly interdependent, making it almost impossible to consider them as single units. While they lose significance compared to flows, they still represent an important physical space where long-term social phenomena have settled, as well as an artificial environment where human relationships and creative and recreational experiences multiply. Even the same campaign it is scaled down in the contemporary age, representing an alternative form of land use but which is nevertheless a different way of being a city.
Old and new suburbs
Obviously, there are not only historical differences in urban planning and the composition of cities, but also cultural, economic, and territorial factors that influence the different compositions of urban systems. In America, for example, the trend in the suburbs is the opposite of that in Europe; historically, in fact, in "suburbs”, those typical areas characterised by an interwoven pattern of detached houses, are areas inhabited by the rich middle class Blazer while in the old continent the suburban areas are often poorer areas and characterised by strong social conflicts. Even in this case, however, there are further recent changes in these dynamics such as the return of the bourgeoisie to the historic city centre on the one hand (the so-called gentrification) and the global growth of people living in slums on the other (shanty town e slums) which highlight a widening of economic and social inequalities peculiar to our time.
Valerio Adolini
