Some socio-economic aspects of urbanization : Mdina case study

Abstract

Cities were established as centres of royal and priestly power. The actual heart of the ancient city was the citadel or little city: its formidable walls enclosed the temple, the palace, and the granary or storehouse and actually protected the ruling group from hostile attacks by the surrounding inhabitants. Historically, the tendency toward a sharp density gradient was intensified by the need for protection within a wall. The city was a sacred boundary, the home of a god, a small-scale model of the universe, where law and order prevailed over chaos and where a common bond of association united a large population with varied cultural, occupational and linguistic backgrounds. Actually, one of the chief essentials of city growth is security against disorder. The most important role of the historic city was its bringing together and integration of varied parts, both public and private, both directed and voluntary. One form of city is that of the classic container: an imposing mass of monumental buildings, usually protected by a wall and surrounded by closely built residential quarters, workshops·, minor shrines or temples, and markets, threaded by alleys, streets, or ceremonial ways. The whole area was enclosed by one or more heavy walls, moats, and canals and entered only through massive gates. Since size and density simultaneously increase the chances for both co-operation and friction, the necessary conditions for stability are likely to be more in number and maybe less closely interdependent for the city than for the small village. The greater heterogeneity of the city lessens the probability that combination can be maintained on the basis of shared values and similar characteristics among the population. It also increases the extent to which integration depends on the acknowledgement of the gains which co-operation and a complicated division of labour bring. The increasing complexity also makes it more difficult for traditional authority to reach all groups, and therefore increases the need for voluntary co-operation ,in the maintenance of the city's social order.