Landscapes of Settlement

Landscapes of Settlement discusses the role and importance of rural settlements, emphasising their historical impact on present-day society as well as their contemporary role in the developed and developing world. Analysing the language of settlement and questions of definition, the book looks at a series of contexts within which settlements can be explored and explained. Beginning with the basic ingredient of all settlement— the human dwelling—the author traces the aggregation into farmsteads, hamlets and villages and the ways these associate, together with towns, to form definite patterns of settlement.