When one typically thinks about a great city visited, or any city for that matter, what is it that comes to mind? Hold on. Before you start thinking too deeply at this early morning hour, perhaps we should begin with an even more foundational question. We should start by asking what exactly it is that defines a great city. Take out a pen and some scrap paper and consider this for a moment…I’ll wait.  

What is a city? Take a minute, and really think it through. To what end have we tended to gather in larger and larger settlements, to enter into more complex and problematic relationships with each other, to construct these hives of human activity, these cities? Are cities the material framework of social life or the grouping of humanity into rather dense concentrations? Or rather, are cities both; a complex interplay between these two definitions?