Where people live in relation to one another is an important aspect of their lives—economic, social and otherwise. Urbanism, with its spatial propinquity, brings them into close touch, ...
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Where people live in relation to one another is an important aspect of their lives—economic, social and otherwise. Urbanism, with its spatial propinquity, brings them into close touch, perhaps at the cost of distending or diluting their ties with the natural environment. Human interactions, planned or not, then become more frequent and diverse though less personal. In terms of economics, both production and consumption activities are profoundly affected by urban concentration. For these reasons, the shift from a basically agrarian (to say nothing of nomadic or hunter-gatherer peoples) to a growing urban society represents a long-term, structural change, comparable in its magnitude and consequences to other great socioeconomic transformations: settled agriculture, industrialization, sustained growth in per capita output, monetization, or the demographic transition. Urbanization has probably drawn the attention of economic historians less often than these others; and yet they have not ignored urban activities, since many subjects of inquiry— finance, many kinds of production, and most types of commerce—are scarcely conceivable in any but an urban context. To a lesser extent, economic historians have examined the workings of cities, from land and housing markets to the regulation of business activity. Still, the underlying phenomenon of growth—absolute and relative—in urban populations, has received comparatively little attention....
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