Characterizations of city types describe tendencies, not uniform historical realities

Evidence

The reader should bear in mind, however, that when I speak of the preindustrial city exhibiting certain characteristics, I refer to tendencies toward exhibiting such characteristics. There is no question but that some actual cities exhibit one or the other characteristic more strongly than do others. As I suggested in Chapter One, abstractions from reality should never be confused with the concrete reality itself. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1089

Categorization

• CANDY: A clean cautionary note that typologies are tendencies, useful as a methodological reminder.