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3 - The analysis of settlement layouts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2009

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Summary

SUMMARY

The basic family of generative concepts is taken and made the basis of a method of analysis of settlement forms, using the generative syntax to establish the description of spatial order, and concepts dealing with the type and quantity of space invested in those relations are introduced. The model of analysis sees a settlement as a bi-polar system arranged between the primary cells or buildings (houses, etc.) and the carrier (world outside the settlement). The structure of space between these two domains is seen as a means of interfacing two kinds of relations: those among the inhabitants of the system; and those between inhabitants and strangers. The essence of the method of analysis is that it first establishes a way of dealing with the global physical structure of a settlement without losing sight of its local structure; and second – a function of the first – it establishes a method of describing space in such a way as to make its social origins and consequences a part of that description – although it must be admitted the links are at present axiomatic rather than demonstrated.

Individuals and classes

At this point the reader could be forgiven for expecting the eventual product of the syntactic method to be some kind of classificatory index of idealised settlement forms, such that any real example could be typed and labelled by comparing it visually with the ideal types and selecting the one that gave the closest approximation.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1984

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