Settlements, Cities, Economy and Globalization

Settlement Types

Dispersed settlement buildings:

• Sometimes isolated building construction (house)
• Small unit of less than one village population, which includes houses and other buildings. May have streets and common user items (sources, hermitages) but has no services (village)
• Very small group of houses at times with ancillary buildings (farmhouse)

The Functions of Cities

A city will have many roles, but sometimes one predominates:

• Residential dormitory cities: Mostoles
• Industrial: Detroit, Milan, Bilbao
• Commerce: prevails in some
• Culture/Study: Oxford, Salamanca
• Historic: Toledo
• Religion: Rome, Jerusalem
• Political/Administrative: can be regional (provincial capital) Madrid, New York.

Spanish Hierarchy and Local Network

1. National metropolis: Madrid and Barcelona
2. Regional metropolis
3. Subregional or regional metropolis 2nd order
4. Medium cities
5. Small cities

Economy

It is to manage the assets that have to meet the needs. Generally, it obtains state income taxes and manages to meet the needs of the citizens (hospital, education, insurance, social...)

Economic Systems

Societies organize their economy in various ways, giving rise to different economic systems.

• Planned or socialist: the state owns most of the factors of production and decides how the economy functions.
• Interventionist: Centralized governments create laws that affect production, activities, prices...
• Market economy: free market or capitalist

Offer: goods and services being offered for sale

Demand: goods and services they are willing to buy at a certain price.

Prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand.

Labor Conditions

The work conditions have improved due to labor legislation and agreements between operators: Unions and employers. These negotiated working conditions are formalized in the collective agreement: wages, social security, health and safety, hours, holidays, strike conditions.

Technology and Communication

The technologies of information and communication technology (ICT) have revolutionized the production of enterprises and created new jobs.

Globalization of the Economy

The countries' economies depend on each other, that is globalization. This is possible because media and ICTs worldwide communicate with each other. Multinationals have factories or produce in countries where wages are cheaper (lower cost).

For connecting all economies there are two types of treaties: the free trade areas and common markets.

In free trade areas, tariffs (import and export taxes) are removed, but each country makes its own decisions.

Common markets allow free movement of goods and people, and countries have adopted a common economic policy with other countries that do not belong to that market.