City and Country: The Historical Evolution of Urban-Rural Systems

City and Country explores the historical evolution of urban-rural systems, highlighting the caloric well and urban dependency. It traces the structural ramifications of population growth, from the Paleolithic to today, and how urban dependency leads to conflict with neighboring groups. Cultural innovations allowed for greater use of resources, but as cities developed, urban dependency deepened, requiring expansion of urban-rural systems. This logic underpins modern capitalism.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 490 pages
Publication date: 30 January 2023
Publisher: Lexington Books

City and Country: The Historical Evolution of Urban-Rural Systems begins with a fundamental premise: every human requires, on average, two thousand calories per day to sustain life. Exploring the implications of this insight leads us to the caloric well, a critical aspect of the environment's caloric demand. As population growth occurs, the depth of the caloric well reflects this increased demand, necessitating a community to venture further afield in search of resources, a phenomenon known as urban dependency. City and Country traces the historical development of these dynamics, spanning from the Paleolithic era to the present day. Urban dependency can be understood as the result of a population's caloric demands on a specific environment, surpassing its carrying capacity. When this occurs, a caloric well emerges, compelling the community to seek resources beyond its immediate vicinity. As the well deepens, the range of resources available is extended, often leading to conflicts with neighboring groups. Before the establishment of settled villages, population increases led to cultural (technological) innovations that facilitated the more efficient utilization of existing resources. Examples include the broad-spectrum revolution approximately 20,000 years ago, the emergence of agricultural villages around 11,000 years ago, and the development of hierarchically organized systems of multiple settlements during the Ubaid period in Mesopotamia approximately 7,000 years ago, marking the earliest urban-rural systems. As cities grew, the increasing population resulted in a deepening morass of urban dependency, necessitating the expansion of urban-rural systems. These dynamics continue to shape modern capitalism, representing the foundation upon which it is built. This research represents the culmination of two decades of dedicated study.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781793644343