ABSTRACT
Controversy over the various urbanist theories of the European transition to capitalism has concentrated on four major areas. These may be listed, in their barest essentials, as follows:
1 The relationship between European cities and feudal or precapitalist social structures Are such cities to be regarded as autonomous islands of capitalism in a sea of feudalism, or conversely as structurally and culturally located within precapitalist society? Or is this antinomy insufficiently sensitive to a more complex and evolving relationship between cities and transitional forms of social organization?
