Urban Success and Urban Adaptation Over the Long Run

Abstract

Archaeology’s principal contribution to knowledge is its ability to track human actions and social conditions over long periods of time. I describe an approach to operationalizing this insight for the rise and fall of cities and other settlement over time. Cities that survive and thrive are considered successful, and urban success can be measured along three dimensions: persistence, population, and prosperity. Successful cities were those whose leaders, residents, and institutions found ways to adapt to a range of shocks and conditions, including the environment, local institutions, and regional political and economic forces. Urban success is therefore due to processes of urban adaptation that operated over long periods of time. I outline a conceptual and methodological approach to urban success, and position the concept with respect to notions of adaptation and time scales in sustainability science and the social and historical sciences more broadly.

How can research on past urban adaptations be made useful for sustainability science?

“…The Argument. Archaeologists like to point out that one of our unique contributions to knowledge is the long-term perspective on change that the archaeological record provides (Kintigh et al, 2014;Smith, 2022). Archaeologists, historians, and geoscientists (Braudel, 1972;Butzer, 1982Butzer, , 2011 developed models of time scales-the notion that different processes operate over different scales of time-long before sustainability scientists addressed the time scales of adaptation processes (Chhetri, Stuhlmacher, & Ishtiaque, 2019;Kates, Travis, & Wilbanks, 2012); see Figure 4.…”

“…Archaeologists are beginning to argue that the archaeological and historical record of past settlement persistence holds potential for illuminating issues of urban sustainability today (Carballo et al, 2022;Crawford et al, 2023;Smith et al, 2021). If we can develop rigorous explanations for variation in settlement persistencefor example, why did some settlements last longer than others?then perhaps those or related factors can be singled out as potential drivers of sustainability today (Smith, 2022).…”

“…If we can develop rigorous explanations for variation in settlement persistence – for example, why did some settlements last longer than others? – then perhaps those or related factors can be singled out as potential drivers of sustainability today (Smith, 2022).…”