ABSTRACT
Cities have occupied an important role in the political, cultural and economic life of European societies for thousands of years and urbanization (often defined as the relative concentration of the population in towns and cities) has underpinned European history for several centuries. However, it is a relatively recent development that in certain countries and regions the majority of the population lives in cities and other densely populated areas. Although none of the mid-nineteenth century societies could be described as predominantly urbanized, all of the industrialized countries, as well as a significant proportion of the less advanced ones, belonged to this category one and a half centuries later. Furthermore, in several aspects, the process of urbanization continues even currently; nevertheless, many regional variations are manifest in Europe. Although the existence, as well as the significance, of this rapid transformation is widely recognized, many of its fundamental concepts, such as the city itself, or urbanization, have remained controversial to the present day. The meaning of these concepts varies in different eras and societies; moreover, it may also differ according to the specific fields of research. Towns and cities can be defined by emphasizing their administrative borders, by relying on functional criteria (such as a central role in the region's cultural and economic life, or in administrative affairs), or by focusing on demographic and ecological aspects, including size and density of the population. Urbanization, likewise, has numerous conceptualizations. The cultural or behavioural approach regards urbanization as the proliferation of a particular quality of social relations, of distinct urban mentalities as well as behavioural patterns (urbanitas). 1 The structural approach primarily considers urbanization on the basis of the structural changes in society caused by industrialization, such as shifts in the production and the occupational structure. Finally, the demographic approach, which is the most common, understands urbanization as the spatial concentration of the population, and it often implies that the population and the social and economic functions are distributed within the urban space in a specific way. 2
