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Why Cities Exist?

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City Form, Economics and Culture

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Architectural Design and Technology ((BRIEFSARCHIDE))

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Abstract

We argue cities exist are the result of economics forces of agglomeration mediated by technological progress. That is, urban growth is fuelled by economically advantageous division of labour. Available technology is the most important constraint to city growth. However, other factors such as political stability, peace and the control of plagues are also important.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Most of our historical claims are standard and can be checked in any universal history manual, see for instance Gombrich (2005) for a fairly comprehensive world history up to the twentieth century.

Reference

  • Gombrich, E. H. (2005). A little history of the world. Yale University Press.

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Correspondence to Pablo Guillen .

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© 2020 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd., part of Springer Nature

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Guillen, P., Komac, U. (2020). Why Cities Exist?. In: City Form, Economics and Culture. SpringerBriefs in Architectural Design and Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5741-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5741-5_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-5739-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-5741-5

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