ancient cities

242 Edge City
distinguished by a number of features, including
the following:
1. The area must have more than 5 million square
feet of office space (about the space of a goodsized
downtown).
2. The place must include over 600,000 square
feet of retail space (the size of a large regional
shopping mall).
3. The population increases every morning and
decreases every afternoon (i.e., there are more
jobs than homes).
4. The place is known as a single end destination
(the place “has it all”: entertainment, shopping,
recreation, etc.).
5. The area must not have been anything like a
“city” 30 years ago (cow pastures would have
been nice).
Garreau goes on to identify three distinct varieties
of edge city: boomers (the most common type,
which develop around a shopping mall or highway
interchange); greenfields (master-planned new towns
on the suburban fringe); and uptowns (activity centers
that have been built over an older city or town).
The last two types are in opposition to the five distinguishing
features in the previous list: Greenfields
that are master-planned new towns include residential
areas as well as entertainment and shopping and
will not suffer the morning increase and afternoon
decrease in population; uptowns that have developed
from earlier satellite cities were, in fact, suburban
cities at some earlier point in time.
Garreau notes that the actual boundaries of the
edge city may be difficult to define, because they
do not have the same look, political organization,
or visual cues as older cities (they are less concentrated,
do not have elected officials, and the semiotics
of space and design are different). But
Garreau asserts that edge cities are “the most purposive
attempt Americans have made since the
days of the founding fathers . . . to create something
like a new Eden.”
Moving beyond the classification of place based
on physical structure and economic function, the
edge city is also described as beyond the political
boundaries of both the central city and suburban
municipalities: “The reasons these places are tricky
to define is that they rarely have a mayor or a city
council.” Although this definition may sound similar
to the “interstitial areas” that figured prominently in
the Chicago School studies, Garreau’s definition of
the edge city contradicts the definition of city in
political science and in sociology.
Other Definitions of the Edge City
Sociologists have many definitions of cities and
urban areas, and it is common for books in urban
sociology to contrast definitions of “cities” and
“urban areas” based upon the numbers of persons
and population densities required for places to be
considered urban. But these are administrative and
legal definitions that go beyond sociology and social
theory. Perhaps the best-known sociological definition
of urbanization is that of size, density, and
heterogeneity from Louis Wirth’s essay “Urbanism
as a Way of Life,” but this is presented not as a
definition of a city per se but rather as a means of
distinguishing between urban and rural places.
The lasting theoretical definition of the city is
provided by Max Weber. In the first chapter of
The City, Weber explains how cities developed
from market centers that had gained political independence
from earlier patriarchal and patrimonial
regimes. The argument is presented in some detail,
and it is clear from his description that the city is
the result of the administrative regulation of economic
markets.
Weber’s definition of the city is constructed as
an ideal type, allowing for a comparison of cities
across time and space, and it remains the starting
point for the sociological study of the city and the
modern metropolis. Crucial to Weber’s understanding
of the rise of the modern city as a distinct
form of social organization is the ability of the city
to regulate economic activity and guarantee rights
and privileges to the citizens. Garreau’s definition
of the edge city specifically limits the edge city to
areas that are outside the political boundaries of
contemporary cities and suburbs. They cannot,
therefore, be cities, because they do not have
political boundaries and therefore do not have
political authority or the ability to regulate activity
or guarantee rights and privileges.
Edge City Studies
Discussion of edge cities has become almost ubiquitous
in the many disciplines that comprise urban