ABSTRACT
The International Conference on Urbanisation and Functional Differentiation resulted in a number of papers whose diversity was perhaps their most striking feature. In itself, this is not all that regrettable. It is what authors have come to expect of a multidisciplinary event like this. At the 1966 International Round-table Conference of the Urban History Group at Leicester Dyos, whose death was so untimely, stated that there was very little point to overly restricting (topics in the framework of) urban history. A great deal of research has already been conducted in the field of urban history. Urban systems can be collective terms for aggregations of individuals, groups, territorial units such as neighbourhoods, occupational groups, income categories, and socio-economic, politico-legal or cultural-organisational units. The formation of the urban systems can in turn be placed within the development of regional, national and continental systems.
