Editing City (section)

== Society ==
=== Social structure ===
[[Urban sociology|Urban society]] is typically [[social stratification|stratified]]. Spatially, cities are formally or informally [[Geographical segregation|segregated]] along ethnic, economic, and racial lines. People living relatively close together may live, work, and play in separate areas, and associate with different people, forming [[ethnic enclave|ethnic]] or [[lifestyle enclave|lifestyle]] enclaves or, in areas of concentrated poverty, [[ghetto]]es. While in the US and elsewhere poverty became associated with the [[inner city]], in France it has become associated with the ''[[banlieue]]s'', areas of urban development that surround the city proper. Meanwhile, across Europe and North America, the racially [[white people|white]] majority is empirically the most segregated group. [[Suburb]]s in the West, and, increasingly, [[Gated community|gated communities]] and other forms of "privatopia" around the world, allow local elites to self-segregate into secure and exclusive [[neighborhood]]s.{{sfn | Latham | McCormack | McNamara | McNeill | 2009 | pp=131–140}}

Landless urban workers, contrasted with [[peasant]]s and known as the [[proletariat]], form a growing stratum of society in the age of urbanization. In [[Marxism|Marxist]] doctrine, the proletariat will inevitably [[proletarian revolution|revolt]] against the [[bourgeoisie]] as their ranks swell with disenfranchised and disaffected people lacking all stake{{clarify|date=May 2022|reason=Unusual wording – is it supposed to be "any stake" perhaps?}} in the [[status quo]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=[[Karl Marx]] |author2=[[Frederick Engels]] |title=Manifesto of the Communist Party|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180724053228/https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ |archive-date=24 July 2018 |date=February 1848 |language= German |translator=Samuel Moore |quote=But with the development of industry, the proletariat not only increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, its strength grows, and it feels that strength more. The various interests and conditions of life within the ranks of the proletariat are more and more equalised, in proportion as machinery obliterates all distinctions of labour, and nearly everywhere reduces wages to the same low level.}}</ref> The global urban proletariat of today, however, generally lacks the status of factory workers which in the nineteenth century provided access to the [[means of production]].<ref name="Davis2004">{{cite journal | last=Davis | first=Mike | title=The Urbanization of Empire: Megacities and the Laws of Chaos | journal=Social Text | publisher=Duke University Press | volume=22 | issue=4 | date=2005-01-18 | issn=1527-1951 | pages=9–15 | doi=10.1215/01642472-22-4_81-9 | url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/4/article/177068/summary |quote= "Although studies of the so-called urban informal economy have shown myriad secret liaisons with outsourced multinational production systems, the larger fact is that hundreds of millions of new urbanites must further subdivide the peripheral economic niches of personal service, casual labor, street vending, rag picking, begging, and crime. <br> This outcast proletariat—perhaps 1.5 billion people today, 2.5 billion by 2030—is the fastest-growing and most novel social class on the planet. By and large, the urban informal working class is not a labor reserve army in the nineteenth-century sense: a backlog of strikebreakers during booms; to be expelled during busts; then reabsorbed again in the next expansion. On the contrary, this is a mass of humanity structurally and biologically redundant to the global accumulation and the corporate matrix.<br> It is ontologically both similar and dissimilar to the historical agency described in the ''Communist Manifesto''. Like the traditional working classes, it has radical chains in the sense of having little vested interest in the reproduction of private property. But it is not a socialized collectivity of labor and it lacks significant power to disrupt or seize the means of production. It does possess, however, yet unmeasured powers of subverting urban order."| url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Economics ===
[[File:Taipei Skyline 2022.06.29.jpg|thumb|Clusters of skyscrapers in [[Xinyi Planning District]], the centre of commerce and finance of [[Taipei]], the capital of [[Taiwan]]]]
Historically, cities rely on [[rural area]]s for [[intensive farming]] to [[crop yield|yield surplus crops]], in exchange for which they provide money, political administration, manufactured goods, and culture.<ref name="Kaplan2004p155" /><ref name="Marshall1989p15" /> [[Urban economics]] tends to analyze larger agglomerations, stretching beyond city limits, in order to reach a more complete understanding of the local [[labor market]].<ref>Marshall (1989), pp. 5–6.</ref>

As hubs of trade, cities have long been home to [[retail]] commerce and [[Consumption (economics)|consumption]] through the interface of [[shopping]]. In the 20th century, [[department store]]s using new techniques of [[advertising]], [[public relations]], [[decorative arts|decoration]], and [[design]], transformed urban shopping areas into [[fantasy world]]s encouraging self-expression and escape through [[consumerism]].<ref>{{harvnb| Latham | McCormack | McNamara | McNeill | 2009 | pp=160–164}}: "Indeed, the design of the buildings often revolves around the consumable fantasy experience, seen most markedly in the likes of Universal CityWalk, Disneyland and Las Vegas. Architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable (1997) names architectural structures built specifically as entertainment spaces as 'Architainment'. These places are, of course, places to make money, but they are also stages of performance for an interactive consumer."</ref><ref>Leach (1993), pp. 173–176 and passim.</ref>

In general, the density of cities expedites commerce and facilitates [[knowledge spillover]]s, helping people and firms exchange information and generate new ideas.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.philadelphiafed.org/files/br/brq401gc.pdf |title=Knowledge Spillovers |access-date=16 May 2010 |archive-date=1 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140501140511/http://www.philadelphiafed.org/files/br/brq401gc.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="CalderFreytas2009">{{Cite journal |last1=Calder |first1=Kent E. |last2=de Freytas |first2=Mariko |year=2009 |title=Global Political Cities as Actors in Twenty-First Century International Affairs |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/269254 |journal=SAIS Review of International Affairs|volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=79–96 |doi=10.1353/sais.0.0036 |s2cid=154230409 |issn=1945-4724 |quote=Beneath state-to-state dealings, a flurry of activity occurs, with interpersonal networks forming policy communities involving embassies, think tanks, academic institutions, lobbying firms, politicians, congressional staff, research centers, NGOs, and intelligence agencies. This interaction at the level of 'technostructure'—heavily oriented toward information gathering and incremental policy modification—is too complex and voluminous to be monitored by top leadership, yet nevertheless often has important implications for policy.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> A thicker labor market allows for better skill matching between firms and individuals. Population density also enables sharing of common infrastructure and production facilities; however, in very dense cities, increased crowding and waiting times may lead to some negative effects.<ref>{{cite journal| last1 = Borowiecki| first1 = Karol J.| title = Agglomeration Economies in Classical Music| journal = Papers in Regional Science| volume = 94| issue = 3| pages = 443–468| year = 2015| url = https://ideas.repec.org/p/cue/wpaper/awp-02-2013.html| doi = 10.1111/pirs.12078| bibcode = 2015PRegS..94..443B| hdl = 10419/246978| access-date = 11 November 2015| archive-date = 4 March 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304201317/https://ideas.repec.org/p/cue/wpaper/awp-02-2013.html| url-status = live| hdl-access = free}}</ref>

Although [[manufacturing]] fueled the growth of cities, many now rely on a [[Tertiary sector of the economy|tertiary]] or [[service economy]]. The services in question range from [[tourism]], [[hospitality industry|hospitality]], [[entertainment]], and [[housekeeping]] to [[grey-collar]] work in [[legal outsourcing|law]], financial consulting, and [[management|administration]].<ref name="Kaplan2004p164" /><ref>[[Saskia Sassen]], "[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Saskia_Sassen/publication/246326854_Global_Cities_and_Survival_Circuits/links/5411771c0cf29e4a2329630c.pdf Global Cities and Survival Circuits] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010004747/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Saskia_Sassen/publication/246326854_Global_Cities_and_Survival_Circuits/links/5411771c0cf29e4a2329630c.pdf |date=10 October 2017 }}"; in ''Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy'' ed. [[Barbara Ehrenreich]] and [[Arlie Russell Hochschild]]; New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002.</ref>

According to a scientific model of cities by Professor [[Geoffrey West]], with the doubling of a city's size, salaries per capita will generally increase by 15%.<ref>{{Cite journal
| last1 = Bettencourt | first1 = L. M. A.
| last2 = Lobo | first2 = J.
| last3 = Helbing | first3 = D.
| last4 = Kuhnert | first4 = C.
| last5 = West | first5 = G. B.
| author-link5 = Geoffrey West
| title = Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities
| doi = 10.1073/pnas.0610172104
| journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
| volume = 104
| issue = 17
| pages = 7301–7306
| year = 2007
| pmid = 17438298
| pmc =1852329
|bibcode = 2007PNAS..104.7301B | doi-access = free
}}</ref>

=== Culture and communications ===
[[File:Paris - Eiffelturm und Marsfeld2.jpg|thumb|[[Paris]] is one of the best-known cities in the world.<ref>{{cite book|first=Emma|last=Nathan|title=Cities: Eye Openers|year=2002|page=2|isbn=978-1567115963|publisher=[[Blackbirch Press]]}}</ref>]]
[[File:Nepalese Dancers at Heritage Days, Edmonton.jpg|thumb|[[Nepal]]ese dancers at [[Edmonton Heritage Festival]], in [[Alberta]], Canada, an example of the cultural diversity of a city]]
Cities are typically hubs for [[education]] and [[the arts]], supporting [[university|universities]], [[museum]]s, [[temple]]s, and other [[cultural institutions]].<ref name=Marshall14 /> They feature impressive displays of [[architecture]] ranging from small to enormous and ornate to [[Brutalist architecture|brutal]]; [[skyscraper]]s, providing thousands of offices or homes within a small footprint, and visible from miles away, have become iconic urban features.{{sfn | Latham | McCormack | McNamara | McNeill | 2009 | pp=84–85}} Cultural elites tend to live in cities, bound together by shared [[cultural capital]], and themselves play some role in governance.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zheng |first=Jane |date=2017-05-19 |title=Toward a new concept of the 'cultural elite state': Cultural capital and the urban sculpture planning authority in elite coalition in Shanghai |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07352166.2016.1255531 |journal=Journal of Urban Affairs|volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=506–527 |doi=10.1080/07352166.2016.1255531 |s2cid=149125180 |issn=0735-2166|url-access=subscription }}</ref> By virtue of their status as centers of culture and literacy, cities can be described as the locus of [[civilization]], [[human history]], and [[social change]].<ref>McQuillan (1937/1987), §§1.04–1.05. "Almost by definition, cities have always provided the setting for great events and have been the focal points for social change and human development. All great cultures have been city-born. World history is basically the history of city dwellers."</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Redfield |first1=Robert |last2=Singer |first2=Milton B. |year=1954 |title=The Cultural Role of Cities |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1151661 |url-status=live |journal=Economic Development and Cultural Change |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=53–73 |doi=10.1086/449678 |issn=0013-0079 |jstor=1151661 |s2cid=154664764 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815091004/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1151661 |archive-date=2018-08-15|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Density makes for effective [[mass communication]] and transmission of [[news]], through [[herald]]s, printed [[proclamation]]s, [[newspaper]]s, and digital media. These communication networks, though still using cities as hubs, penetrate extensively into all populated areas. In the age of rapid communication and transportation, commentators have described urban culture as nearly ubiquitous<ref name=HugoEtAl2003 /><ref>Magnusson (2011), p. 21. "These statistics probably underestimate the degree to which the world has been urbanized, since they obscure the fact that rural areas have become so much more urban as a result of modern transportation and communication. A farmer in Europe or California who checks the markets every morning on the computer, negotiates with product brokers in distant cities, buys food at a supermarket, watches television every night, and takes vacations half a continent away is not exactly living a traditional rural life. In most respects such a farmer is an urbanite living in the countryside, albeit an urbanite who has many good reasons for perceiving himself or herself as a rural person."</ref><ref>Mumford (1961), pp. 563–567. "Many of the original functions of the city, once natural monopolies, demanding the physical presence of all participants, have now been transposed into forms capable of swift transportation, mechanical manifolding, electronic transmission, worldwide distribution."</ref> or as no longer meaningful.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Theall |first1=Donald F. |title=The virtual Marshall McLuhan |last2=Carpenter |first2=Edmund |date=2001 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-7735-2119-3 |location=Montreal}}</ref>

Today, a city's promotion of its cultural activities dovetails with [[place branding]] and [[city marketing]], [[public diplomacy]] techniques used to inform development strategy; attract businesses, investors, residents, and tourists; and create [[collective identity|shared identity]] and [[sense of place]] within the metropolitan area.<ref>Ashworth, Kavaratzis, & Warnaby, "The Need to Rethink Place Branding"; in Kavaratzis, Warnaby, & Ashworth (2015), p. 15.</ref><ref name=Wachsmuth2014 /><ref>Adriana Campelo, "Rethinking Sense of Place: Sense of One and Sense of Many"; in Kavaratzis, Warnaby, & Ashworth (2015).</ref><ref name=KerrOliver2015>Greg Kerr & Jessica Oliver, "Rethinking Place Identities", in Kavaratzis, Warnaby, & Ashworth (2015).</ref> Physical inscriptions, [[Historical marker|plaques]], and [[monument]]s on display physically transmit a historical context for urban places.{{sfn | Latham | McCormack | McNamara | McNeill | 2009 | p=186–189}} Some cities, such as [[Jerusalem]], [[Mecca]], and [[Rome]] have indelible religious status and for hundreds of years have attracted [[pilgrim]]s. Patriotic tourists visit [[Agra]] to see the [[Taj Mahal]], or [[New York City]] to visit the [[World Trade Center (2001–present)|World Trade Center]]. [[Elvis]] lovers visit [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] to pay their respects at [[Graceland]].{{sfn | Latham | McCormack | McNamara | McNeill | 2009 | pp=41, 189–192}} Place brands (which include place satisfaction and place loyalty) have great economic value (comparable to the value of commodity [[brand]]s) because of their influence on the [[decision-making]] process of people thinking about doing business in—"purchasing" (the brand of)—a city.<ref name=KerrOliver2015 />

[[Bread and circuses]] among other forms of cultural appeal, attract and entertain [[commoner|the masses]].<ref name=MoholyNagy1968p136>Moholy-Nagy (1968), pp. 136–137. "Why do anonymous people—the poor, the underprivileged, the unconnected—frequently prefer life under miserable conditions in tenements to the healthy order and tranquility of small towns or the sanitary subdivisions of semirural developments? The imperial planners and architects knew the answer, which is as valid today as it was 2,000 years ago. Big cities were created as power images of a competitive society, conscious of its achievement potential. Those who came to live in them did so in order to participate and compete on any attainable level. Their aim was to share in public life, and they were willing to pay for this share with personal discomfort. 'Bread and games' was a cry for opportunity and entertainment still ranking foremost among urban objectives."</ref><ref>Fred Coalter, "[http://storre.stir.ac.uk/handle/1893/1742 The FIFA World Cup and Social Cohesion: Bread and Circuses or Bread and Butter?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010005333/http://storre.stir.ac.uk/handle/1893/1742 |date=10 October 2017 }}"; International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education ''Bulletin'' [http://www.icsspe.org/content/no-53-cd-rom 53] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706111108/http://www.icsspe.org/content/no-53-cd-rom |date=6 July 2017 }}, May 2008 (Feature: Feature: "Mega Sport Events in Developing Countries").</ref> Sports also play a major role in city branding and local [[Identity (social science)|identity]] formation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schimmel |first=Kimberly S. |year=2015 |title=Assessing the sociology of sport: On sport and the city |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1012690214539484 |journal=International Review for the Sociology of Sport|volume=50 |issue=4–5 |pages=591–595 |doi=10.1177/1012690214539484 |s2cid=142777232 |issn=1012-6902|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Cities go to considerable lengths in competing to host the [[Olympic Games]], which bring global attention and tourism.<ref name=Ward2008>Stephen V. Ward, "Promoting the Olympic City"; in John R. Gold & Margaret M. Gold, eds., ''Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning and the World's Games'', 1896–2016; London & New York: Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2008/2011; {{ISBN|978-0-203-84074-0}}. "All this media exposure, provided it is reasonably positive, influences many tourist decisions at the time of the Games. This tourism impact will focus on, but extend beyond, the city to the country and the wider global region. More importantly, there is also huge long term potential for both tourism and investment (Kasimati, 2003). <br> No other city marketing opportunity achieves this global exposure. At the same time, provided it is carefully managed at the local level, it also gives a tremendous opportunity to heighten and mobilize the commitment of citizens to their own city. The competitive nature of sport and its unrivalled capacity to be enjoyed as a mass cultural activity gives it many advantages from the marketing point of view (S.V. Ward, 1998, pp. 231–232). In a more subtle way it also becomes a metaphor for the notion of cities having to compete in a global marketplace, a way of reconciling citizens and local institutions to the wider economic realities of the world."</ref> Paris, a city known for its cultural history, was the site of the most recent Olympics in the summer of 2024.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-01-25 |title=Olympics: Paris rushing to complete construction work by 2024. |work=Real Estate Monitor Worldwide |publisher=SyndiGate Media Inc. |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A734480538/ITOF?u=anon~a4ae51c2&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=73cfb234 |via=Gale General OneFile}}</ref>

=== Warfare ===
[[File:The Second World War 1939-45- Victory and Aftermath IND5196.jpg|thumb|The [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atomic bombing]] of [[Hiroshima]] on 6 August 1945 devastated the city and led to [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|Imperial Japan's surrender]] and the end of [[World War II]].]]
Cities play a crucial strategic role in warfare due to their economic, demographic, symbolic, and political centrality. For the same reasons, they are targets in [[asymmetric warfare]]. Many cities throughout history were founded under military auspices, a great many have incorporated [[fortification]]s, and military principles continue to [[military urbanism|influence urban design]].{{sfn | Latham | McCormack | McNamara | McNeill | 2009 | pp=127–128}} Indeed, war may have served as the social rationale and economic basis for the very earliest cities.<ref name=Mumfurd1961war>Mumford (1961), pp. 39–46. "As the physical means increased, this one-sided power mythology, sterile, indeed hostile to life, pushed its way into every corner of the urban scene and found, in the ''new'' institution of organized war, its completest expression. [...] Thus both the physical form and the institutional life of the city, from the very beginning to the urban implosion, were shaped in no small measure by the irrational and magical purposes of war. From this source sprang the elaborate system of fortifications, with walls, ramparts, towers, canals, ditches, that continued to characterize the chief historic cities, apart from certain special cases—as during the Pax Romana—down to the eighteenth century. [...] War brought concentration of social leadership and political power in the hands of a weapons-bearing minority, abetted by a priesthood exercising sacred powers and possessing secret but valuable scientific and magical knowledge."</ref><ref name=Ashworth1991p12 />

Powers engaged in [[geopolitics|geopolitical]] conflict have established fortified settlements as part of military strategies, as in the case of [[garrison]] towns, America's [[Strategic Hamlet Program]] during the [[Vietnam War]], and [[Israeli settlement]]s in Palestine.<ref>Ashworth (1991). "In more recent years, planned networks of defended settlements as part of military strategies can be found in the pacification programmes of what has become the conventional wisdom of anti-insurgency operations. Connected networks of protected settlements are inserted as islands of government control into insurgent areas—either defensively to separate existing populations from insurgents or aggressively as a means of extending control over areas—as used by the British in South Africa (1899–1902) and Malaya (1950–3) and by the Americans in Cuba (1898) and Vietnam (1965–75). These were generally small settlements and intended as much for local security as offensive operations. / The planned settlement policy of the State of Israel, however, has been both more comprehensive and has longer-term objectives. [...] These settlements provide a source of armed manpower, a defence in depth of a vulnerable frontier area and islands of cultural and political control in the midst of a potentially hostile population, thus continuing a tradition of the use of such settlements as part of similar policies in that area which is over 2,000 years old."</ref> While [[Philippine–American War|occupying]] the [[Philippines]], the US Army ordered local people to concentrate in cities and towns, in order to isolate committed insurgents and battle freely against them in the countryside.<ref>See Brigadier General [[J. Franklin Bell]]'s telegraphic circular to all station commanders, 8 December 1901, in Robert D. Ramsey III, ''[http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/ramseyop25.pdf A Masterpiece of Counterguerrilla Warfare: BG J. Franklin Bell in the Philippines, 1901–1902] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216151944/http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/ramseyop25.pdf |date=16 February 2017 }}'', Long War Series, Occasion Paper 25; Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute Press, US Army Combined Arms Center; pp. 45–46. "Commanding officers will also see that orders are at once given and distributed to all the inhabitants within the jurisdiction of towns over which they exercise supervision, informing them of the danger of remaining outside of these limits and that unless they move by December 25th from outlying barrios and districts with all their movable food supplies, including rice, palay, chickens, live stock, etc., to within the limits of the zone established at their own or nearest town, their property (found outside of said zone at said date) will become liable to confiscation or destruction."</ref><ref>Maj. Eric Weyenberg, U.S. Army, ''[http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD1001905 Population Isolation in the Philippine War: A Case Study] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608222231/http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD1001905 |date=8 June 2017 }}''; School of Advanced Military Studies, United States Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; January 2015.</ref>

During [[World War II]], national governments on occasion declared certain cities [[open city|open]], effectively [[surrender (military)|surrendering]] them to an advancing enemy in order to avoid damage and bloodshed. Urban warfare proved decisive, however, in the [[Battle of Stalingrad]], where Soviet forces repulsed German occupiers, with extreme casualties and destruction. In an era of [[low-intensity conflict]] and rapid urbanization, cities have become sites of long-term conflict waged both by foreign occupiers and by local governments against [[insurgency]].<ref name=Davis2004 /><ref>Ashworth (1991), p. 3. Citing L.C. Peltier and G.E. Pearcy, ''Military Geography'' (1966).</ref> Such warfare, known as [[counterinsurgency]], involves techniques of surveillance and [[psychological warfare]] as well as [[close combat]],<ref>R.D. McLaurin & R. Miller. ''[http://www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=ADA219359 Urban Counterinsurgency: Case Studies and Implications for U.S. Military Forces] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170629092550/http://www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=ADA219359 |date=29 June 2017 }}''. Springfield, VA: Abbott Associates, October 1989. Produced for U.S. Army Human Engineering Laboratory at [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]].</ref> and functionally extends modern urban [[crime prevention]], which already uses concepts such as [[defensible space theory|defensible space]].<ref>Ashworth (1991), pp. 91–93. "However, some specific sorts of crime, together with those antisocial activities which may or may not be treated as crime (such as vandalism, graffiti daubing, littering and even noisy or boisterous behavior), do play various roles in the process of insurgency. This leads in consequence to defensive reactions on the part of those responsible for public security, and by individual citizens concerned for their personal safety. The authorities react with situational crime prevention as part of the armoury of urban defense, and individuals fashion their behavior according to an 'urban geography of fear'."</ref>

Although capture is the more common objective, warfare has in some cases spelled complete destruction for a city. Mesopotamian [[Cuneiform script#List of major cuneiform tablet discoveries|tablets]] and [[ruins]] attest to such destruction,<ref>Adams (1981), p. 132 "Physical destruction and ensuing decline of population were certain to be particularly severe in the case of cities that joined unsuccessful rebellions, or whose ruling dynasts were overcome by others in abbtle. The traditional lamentations provide eloquently stylized literary accounts of this, while in other cases the combinations of archaeological evidence with the testimony of a city's like Ur's victorious opponent as to its destruction grounds the world of metaphor in harsh reality (Brinkman 1969, pp. 311–312)."</ref> as does the Latin motto ''[[Carthago delenda est]]''.<ref>Fabien Limonier, "[http://www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1999_num_101_3_4773 Rome et la destruction de Carthage: un crime gratuit?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602133751/https://www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1999_num_101_3_4773 |date=2 June 2018 }}" ''Revue des Études Anciennes'' 101(3).</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |date=August 2004 |title=The First Genocide: Carthage, 146 BC |url=https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/first_genocide.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Diogenes|volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=27–39 |doi=10.1177/0392192104043648 |s2cid=143199778 |issn=0392-1921 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516201720/http://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/first_genocide.pdf |archive-date=2017-05-16}}</ref> Since the [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]] and throughout the [[Cold War]], [[Nuclear strategy|nuclear strategists]] continued to contemplate the use of "[[countervalue|counter-value]]" targeting: crippling an enemy by annihilating its valuable cities, rather than [[counterforce|aiming primarily at its military forces]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Westou |first=Burns H. |title=Nuclear Weapons versus International Law: A Contextual Reassessment |url=http://lawjournal.mcgill.ca/userfiles/other/7673710-westou.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=McGill Law Journal |volume=28 |pages=577 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010010611/http://lawjournal.mcgill.ca/userfiles/other/7673710-westou.pdf |archive-date=2017-10-10 |quote=As noted above, nuclear weapons designed for countervalue or city-killing purposes tend to be of the strategic class, with known yields of deployed warheads averaging somewhere between two and three times and 1500 times the firepower of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.}}</ref><ref>Dallas Boyd, "[http://www.au.af.mil/au/ssq/digital/pdf/Spring16/Boyd.pdf Revealed Preference and the Minimum Requirements of Nuclear Deterrence] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131081833/http://www.au.af.mil/au/ssq/digital/pdf/Spring16/Boyd.pdf |date=2017-01-31 }}"; ''Strategic Studies Quarterly'', Spring 2016.</ref>

=== Climate change ===
{{main|Climate change and cities}}
{{Excerpt|Climate change and cities}}