Evolution of Services in Human Settlements

1. Chapter 12 Services

2. What are services? • Service: • Any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it • Space: • Where services are located in space, creates a link between services and settlements • Rural villages to megalopolis • Why services are clustered??? • Proximity to market • Optimal location for services is near customers • Locating a service • Uses more precise geographic skills than Industry • Tend to be specific places • “location, location, location” • Distribution must be where people live • Also driven by socio-economic factors

3. Where did Services Originate? • Services provided in all societies • In MDCs majority of workers engaged in the provision of services • North America 3/4th of workers in services • % in LDCs less than 1/4th • Services provide more than 2/3rd of the GDP in MDCs • Less than ½ in LDCs • Three types of services: • Consumer services • Business services • Public services

4. Types of Services • Consumer Services • Definition: • purpose to provide services to individual consumers who desire them and can afford to pay them • Nearly 44% of jobs in US are in consumer services • Types: • Retail and Wholesale Services • 15% of jobs in US • Department stores, grocers, clothing • Education Services • 10% of jobs in US • Health Services • 12% of jobs • Health care, primarily hospitals, nursing homes • Leisure and Hospitality Services • 10% of jobs • Restaurants and bars, lodging and entertainment

5. Business Services • Definition: • Purpose is to facilitate other businesses • 24% of all jobs in US • Types: • Financial services • 6% of US jobs • Called “Fire” for financial, insurance, real estate • Financial = banks • Professional Services • 12% of US jobs • Technical services: law, accounting, architecture, engineering, design, and consulting • Support Services: clerical, secretarial, custodial • Transportation and Information Services • Businesses that diffuse and distribute • 6% of US jobs • Transportation • Mainly trucking • Can also include: • Publishing/ broadcasting • Utilities such as water and electricity

6. Public Services • Definition: • Purpose is to provide security and protection for citizens and businesses • 17% of jobs in US • Mainly Federal government, state, or local government

7. Changes in number of employees • Between 1972 and 2009 • All growth in service sector • Decline in employment in primary and secondary jobs • Business Services • Expanded in professional services most rapidly • Engineering, management, law • Grew more slowly in finance and transportation services • Mainly due to improved efficiency • Consumer services • Rapid increase in health care • Including nursing homes and home-health care • Other large increases in Education, Entertainment, recreation • Public services • Declined over past two decades

8. Services in Contemporary Rural Settlements • Before establishment of Permanent settlements people lived as nomads • At some point, people decided to build permanent settlements • Were they established because of need to services? • Based on archeological studies settlements built first for consumer and public services • Later came business services

9. Early Consumer Services • Earliest permanent settlements may have been established to offer consumer services • Specifically burial of the dead • By 5,000 years ago many settlements existed • Settlements also may have been places to house families • People also needed tools, clothing, shelter, containers, fuel, and other material goods • Settlements became manufacturing centers • The variety of consumer services expanded as people began to specialize

10. Early Public Services • Public services probably followed religious activities into early permanent settlements • Everyone in settlement vulnerable to attack so some members became soldiers • Settlement likely was a good base from which the group could defend nearby food sources against competitors • Might build wall around settlement for extra protection • Settlements became citadels • Centers for military power

11. Early Business Services • Everyone in settlements needed food • Initially brought in through hunting and gathering • What about extra supply? • Led to storage • Settlements also became a place where people could trade goods and services • Eventually led to record keeping, currency system, and setting fair prices

12. Services in Early Urban Settlements • Services in Ancient Cities • Earliest Urban settlements • First documented ones in Mesopotamia • Ur, Uruk • Evidence suggests that cities were well-planned

13. Services in Early Urban Settlements • Ancient Athens • First Mediterranean settlements established 2500 B.C.E. • Oldest include Knossos, Troy, and Mycenae • Trading centers for thousands of islands • Organized into city-states • Athens • Largest city-state • Provide consumer services and cultural activities • Ancient Rome • Rise of Roman Empire encouraged urban settlement • Settlements established as centers of administrative, military, and other public services • As well as retail and consumer services • Trade encourages through transportation • With fall of Rome, urban settlements declined • Trade diminished

14. Services in Early Urban Settlements • Urban life revived in 11th century Europe • Feudal lords established new urban settlements • Feudalism • Rise of small towns to facilitate trade by 14th century • Large Medieval urban settlements served as power centers for lords and church leaders • Most important services in town square • Church, palaces

16. Key issue #2-Where are contemporary services located? • Services are clustered in settlements • Rural Settlements • Centers of agriculture • Provide small amount of services • Urban Settlements • Centers for consumer and business services

17. Services in Rural Settlements • A clustered rural settlement is a place where a number of families live in close proximity to each other • A dispersed rural settlement is characterized by farmers living on individual farms isolated from neighbors • Typical in North America

18. Clustered Rural Settlements • Typically includes homes, barns, tool sheds, and other farm structures • Includes consumer services such as religious structures, schools, and shops • May have a handful of business services • Often these settlements are called a hamlet or village

19. Circular Rural Settlements • Circular Rural Settlements • Circular form consists of a central open space surrounded by structures • Example: kraal villages • Enclosures for livestock in center, surrounded by ring of houses • Example: German Gewanforf settlements • Consists of core of houses, barns, and churches, encircled by different types of agricultural activities • Von Thunen observed this in his agricultural studies

20. Linear Rural Settlements • Comprise of buildings clustered along a road, river or dike to facilitate communications • Fields extend behind the buildings in long, narrow strips • Can be seen today along St. Lawrence River in Quebec • French long-lot system • Houses erected along river • Narrow lots established perpendicular to river so that each settler had access to river

22. Colonial American Clustered Settlements • Favored for several reasons: • Settlers typically traveled in groups • Colonists wanted to live close together • To protect from Indian attacks • Outsiders could only obtain land by permission of the town’s residents • Contemporary New England landscape contains remnants of the old clustered rural settlement patterns • New England built clustered settlements centered on an open area called a common • Settlers grouped their homes and public buildings around common • In addition to houses, each settler had a home of 1 to 5 acres • Contained barn, garden, and enclosures for feeding livestock

23. Dispersed Rural Settlements • Outside of New England, dispersed rural settlements were more common in the American colonies • In New England and Great Britain, clustered rural settlements were converted to a dispersed pattern • Many disadvantages to clustered pattern • Farmers lost time moving between fields • Villagers had to build more roads to connect smaller lots • Farmers were restricted in what they could plant • United States • Middle colonies settled by more heterogeneous groups than New England • Led to land being bought individually • Dispersed pattern spread to Mid-West and later New England • Worked better with larger populations • People less interested in religious and cultural values • Great Britain • Converted to improve agricultural production • Led to enclosure movement • Consolidated individual land into one large farm • Brought efficiency but destroyed village life • Coincided with Industrial Revolution

24. Services in Urban Settlements • Population of urban settlements exceeded that of rural settlements for the 1st time in human history in 2008 • 1800- 3% • 1850- 6% • 1900- 14% • 1950- 30% • 2000- 47%

25. Services in Urban Settlements • Differences between urban and rural settlements • Differences identified by Louis Wirth in 1900s • Defined cities by three characteristics • Wirth argued these characteristics produced differences in the social behavior of urban and rural residents • Large size • Rural – small • Urban- medium/ large • High density • Rural- low pop density • Urban- high pop density • Only way people can be supported is through specialization • Social heterogeneity • The larger the settlement the greater diversity of the people

26. Increasing # of people in cities • Process by which the population of urban settlements grows is called urbanization • Two dimensions • Increase in number of people living in cities • Increase in the % of people living in the cities • Distinction important because they occur for different reasons and have different global distributions • Large % of people living in cities reflects a country’s level of development • MDCs have a higher % of urban residents BUT LDCs have very large urban settlements • Eight of the ten most populous cities are in LDCs • Buenos Aires, Dehli, Dhaka, Calcutta, Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paolo and Shanghai • Fueled by people migrating from countryside for economic opportunities • Also connected to high natural increase rates