This book explores the relationships between form, space, and cultural meaning in human habitation. Authors from a variety of disciplines and international sites address the possibilities of common ground in architectural theories about place and dwelling, anthropological research on settlement archaeology, and the study of cultural landscapes and geography. Illustrated with 220 full-color images, this book is a unique attempt to combine thinking about cultural meaning in space and settlements, both ancient and contemporary.
In Mikulčice and Its Hinterland, Marek Hladík presents an archaeological model of socio-economic relations in Great Moravia, built on the data from the hinterland of the Mikulčice. The book analyses relations between the centre and its surroundings.
Global Review of Human Settlements: A Support Paper for Habitat: United Nations Conference on Human Settlement reviews global human settlement conditions and the factors affecting their present and future developments. The report presents information, analyses, and conclusions. It analyzes the causes and effects of the urbanization process; describes the quality of life in human settlements; and presents relevant definitions, list of tables, and country composition by regions. The urbanization process pertains to demographical and economical aspects. Demographical aspects include city size, city growth, migration, and natural increase. Natural population increase accounts for about one-half of urban population while migration from rural to urban places account for the other half. One aspect of the quality of life in human settlements is the prevailing housing conditions. According to the report, housing conditions in most developing countries have become worse in the past ten years due to rapid population growth, to rates of migration from rural to urban places, and to the decline of the rate of increase in national output. The report also contains a list of criteria used nationally to distinguish urban areas from rural areas. For example, South Korea defines urban areas as Seoul or municipalities with 5,000 or more inhabitants. The report is suitable for demographers, economists, environmentalists, ecologists, and policy makers involved in rural development and social services.
In this study Roland Fletcher argues that the built environment becomes a constraint on the long-term development of a settlement. It is costly to move settlements, or to demolish and rebuild from scratch, so the initial layout and buildings, and the forms of communication that result, may come to shackle further development and also to place constraints on social and political change. Using this theoretical framework, Dr Fletcher reviews worldwide settlement growth over the past 15,000 years, and concludes with a major discussion of the great transformations of human settlements - from mobile to sedentary, sedentary to urban, and urban to industrial. This book is an ambitious contribution to archaeological theory, and the questions it raises also have implications for the future of urban settlement.
This new dictionary provides over 2,000 clear and concise entries on human geography, covering basic terms and concepts as well as biographies, organisations, and major periods and schools. Authoritative and accessible, this is a must-have for every student of human geography, as well as for professionals and interested members of the public.
Provides a critical survey of the theories, concepts, intellectual debates, substantive domains and traditions of study characterizing the analysis of things. This handbook charts an interdisciplinary field of studies that makes a fundamental contribution to an understanding of what it means to be human.
