DEFINITIONS - UNDERSTANDING THE TOWN OR CITY

Terms such as city, urban and urbanism / urban, referring to the various phenomena that vary widely according to differences in history and territory. A number of disciplines have developed perspectives each to understand the phenomenon of the urban or urban areas. We recognize the existence of urban anthropology, urban economics, urban geography, urban sociology and so forth. Various conceptions of urban communities were different in each language. Distinguishing between large cities and small towns in the English language for instance, is not the same as those we find in other languages. In general, we can call the city as a place in certain areas inhabited by quite a lot of people. The study of urban communities is not only examines the life of the community at large, but also certain characteristics of its internal life. Urban culture, began in six separate areas of ancient civilizations, namely Mesopota-mia, the Nile and the Indus river valley, North China, Mesoamerica, the Andes Mountains and the area of ​​Yorubaland in West Africa (Wheatley, 1971). In residential centers that are central monarchy and religious institutions each with its own administrative staff and the official guardian of the powerful to control the farmers and residents in the surrounding places, and use it. The buildings tribal cultural center evolved into a series of monumental architectural complex that includes temples, pyramids, palaces, buildings and so great justice. There we find not only the embryo of a city, but also the beginning of civilization and state institutions. Cities in Yoruba, which seems to grow independently, is the development of technology architecture and various other technologies, as well as social structure. These places are the early urban centers thanks to its capacity to organize life in all corners of the surrounding area, which mainly take place through the symbolic control. But urban life in those days, not like now, where everything is completely centralized. At that time, residents do not live in the centers but the crowd scattered in various places and they only come in the crowded center / city to engage in ritual activities are important. At that moment the situation is similar to current urban conditions. But from time to time, due to threats and many other factors, increasingly felt the need to increase political control which is then followed by increasing concentration of population in the centers of the crowd earlier. Similar developments also occurred in Europe. In La Cite Antique ("Ancient City [1864]), Fustel de Coulanges describes the early development of urban areas in Europe that the process is more complex than just a ritual of political developments. In its heyday, the cities of the Graeco-Roman era, filled by the elite owners land and warlords that all activities ditun-who by the thousands of slaves. In those days the city is the center of power and consumers. Trade and industry have played an important role. But once the ancient kingdoms and cities began to decline in the Middle Ages, an urbanism emerging in Western Europe. The foundation primarily commercial activity, so the business became the dominant element in these cities. In a relatively fast these cities developed into an autonomous and independent from the feudal social structure that surrounds it. Belgian historian Henri Pirenne was one a scientist who has focused on the cities of medieval Europe in this. Other figures are Max Weber, who developed a type of ideal in his work entitled The City (1958 [1921]). What he considered the ideal is an urban community with a market as a central institution, supported by an administrative and legal system that is autonomous, and resembles an association that summarizes all the elements of urban life itself (one of the elements which explicitly put forward is among the workers.) Weber's formulation of the most quoted was actually an urbanism that very tight. Differences city and surrounding areas are clear but their institutional figure in European history is different from time to time. Weber also compare the new cities in Europe with the cities in the East. He mentioned the cities of the eastern region unfragmented more internally integrated and more related to the administration of the kingdom in power. In short the cities of the East is still characterized as a city of power with emphasis on power through the symbolic aspects. industrialism clearly gives effect and color of urban type. One effect is kemelaratannya a contemporary residential centers in the cities that are full inclustri. The picture was recorded properly in the work of Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1969 [18 451), which is based on observations of the hustle-bustle of the city of Manchester . The next classic work of urban life during industrialism created by the flow of the Chicago sociologists, such as Robert E. Park, Louis Wirth, and several other scientists, in the 1920s and the 1930s. The Chicago sociologists partial review of industrial and organizational-change the resulting changes could then serve as a foothold for them to bring up the term "urban ecology". At the same time, they made a series of small-scale ethno-grafi that highlight life in the corners of the city as part of a study of spatial wider city. It was then that they pioneering studies on various topics that is now the core of urban anthropology, ie, ranging from urban areas inhabited by specific ethnic, youth gangs, labor, deviant groups and studies on the role of public places. In his article famous, Louis Wirth (1938) calls social contacts perkota of as something that is "impersonal, supervisial, temporary, and segmental". This is in line with the views of Chicago sociologist who was rather pessimistic about the possibility of creating a satisfying human life in urban areas are met by industry. Without ignoring the contribution of the cities for intellectual development, indeed, quite a lot of scientists who have little hope for a decent life and in the cities of the time. On the whole they focus on internal characteristics of a city, luamya figure rather than as a residential community.'s view of Chicago scientists appeared to be influenced by their own experience in his hometown who feel stifled in a bind when Americans are capitalistic industry was growing, diwamai by ethnic diversity that often lead to endless conflict. It is clear that the generalization above is too general. Partly because it appears a series of new ethnographic studies that tried to put the problem more in perspective. They are trying to emphasize how the diversity of city life, which is obviously richer colors with what is proposed by Wirth. In Street Corner Society (1943) William F . Whyte describes the lives of residents of Italian descent in Boston, which although initially dismissed the then recognized as an important aspect to understand impersonalitas and stiffness of city life. But the life of the city not only contains things that are stifling it, because there was also no relationship of friendship, kinship and the bond work that is not based on technical prowess alone. Dalarn certain things, the city could be like mosaic bustling villages. With the growth of subcultures and new life that is more diverse, and growing consciousness of the scientists about cultural diversity in urban areas, the science urban ethnography also found fresh blood in North America and Europe. perspective so we can see on the study of contemporary urbanism in the Third World. The process happened so fast urbanization in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, especially since the mid-twentieth century, which also marks commencement of "disorganization", "detribalisasi", and weakening of traditional social ties in general. The studies of per-urban in the Third World, tends to focus on the weakening of ties of kinship and ethnicity as well as mengentalnya economic and political dimensions of life in cities . But that does not mean that bond and the old value has been lost at all. A series of research on urban settlements in Latin America for example, states that public housing projects of large-scale hard to succeed because of urban migrants from the villages still prefer hanging out with each other in slum settlements. There is also research that highlights the importance of the informal sector as a pillar of urban economic life. Though often despised, proved to be a mainstay of the informal sector in employment creation, especially for the newcomers from the villages of technical skills and minimal formal education. Sectors that are brought together artisans, small traders, rickshaw pullers, ice cream vendors, hawkers, shoeshine, and various small-scale livelihood others that look trivial but it proved to be effective to create jobs and sources of livelihood for many people. Yet we must be careful not to exaggerate the role of in-formal sector in overcoming various problems in urban areas in the Third World or even in other places. The debate over the role of the informal sector itself is still ongoing. Any generalizations about the city and urban life must always be supported by strong evidence. To what extent is not yet available evidence is strong enough to say that the informal sector is always a positive role, given many towns ravaged by the development of the informal sector that is not balanced. The diversity of city life is influenced by relationships between cities and the humans who inhabit it. A number of research takes a different perspective by placing their study on urban centers in a broader context. In geography and regional economics, various models have been developed to study the distribution mern partial function function of urban-wide scale. One of them is the central place theory (central place theory) that are developed for the first time by Walter Christaller (1933) during the period of the 1930s, devoted to learning the location of commercial centers, administrative and transportation. Meanwhile, the experts focused on the geography of the city based on the classification problem kemasyarakatannya function and analyze its internal structure in accordance with these functions.