AWRC Lunchtime Talk: The Urban Conundrum

Urbanism is a label and a label is not the thing labelled. Though there is a common-sense understanding of what is meant by urbanism there is no agreed global definition. Urban settlements can contain sedentary or mobile communities, with or without social hierarchies. They can be small or large and compact or dispersed in form. Researchers in each region have their own local understanding of the label. Criticisms across regions and periods are not tenable, even within Europe, and especially not between continents.

Yet discourse is complicated because the labels urban and city have cachet. Reporting the discovery of the “First City” or finding a “Lost City” is worthwhile. Comparison to the time depth of other cities or to the standard of other lost places eg a “lost village” is both explicit and implicit. Archaeologists retain both a respect for the dignity of regional traditions and opinions and retain a sense of global cross-comparability. But the protean definitions of urbanism or the city make the latter task problematic. How then might we facilitate worthwhile global cross-comparability and ensure that we retain our fundamental appreciation of the regional and temporal difference referenced by the label urbanism?



For members of the Ancient World Research Cluster Roland will join us for lunch in Hall at 12.30.