Artikelen

Reflections on City-Hinterland Relations in Mediterranean Europe

Auteurs

  • Blok,Anton

Trefwoorden:

Urbanization, Mediterranean, Rural, Hinterland

Samenvatting

In a discussion of the urban orientation of agrarian societies in the European Mediterranean, urbanization is defined as the process that involves the growth of towns and cities at the expense of the countryside. To clarify the relations between urban centers and their hinterland, and to account for their persistent structural asymmetry, it is pointed out that the process of urbanization in Mediterranean Europe has long differed from the growth and expansion of urban life in Western Europe. The hypothesis is that these differences involve distinct city-hinterland configurations which can be explained only by considering the long-term development of the respective societies at large. Reflections on the specific nature and course of Mediterranean urbanization include the following points: (1) the organization of production and the process of state- formation, (2) the merging of the noble classes with the urban mercantile bourgeoisie, (3) the absence of effective central control against the threats from bandits and pirates, (4) weak development of other central authority, and (5) the impersonal character of long-term social processes. Today, Mediterranean peasants constitute marginal populations in marginal territories with respect to any meaningful national identification and integration. J. Shiffer

Biografie auteur

Blok,Anton

Gepubliceerd

1972-03-01

Nummer

Sectie

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