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[German Version] I. Sociology The popular idea of a town or city is primarily a densely populated and heterogeneous collection of buildings having various uses, provided with specific rights, and always having a market place. The “European city” is however principally understood as being also the arena of city society. Sociology has studied the development of urban societies for about 150 years, because towns are places of close-knit economic growth, social diversity, and innovations and conflicts. To modern sociology the town was simply the laboratory of society. Today in Europe …

[German Version] The term “city” indicates an area of concentrated inhabitation ranking, usually in size but sometimes more in status, as superior to the “town.” Exact definitions vary: in Germany a Großstadt is any town of more than 100,000 inhabitants, while in the UK the designation “city” is dependent on the status of a town as an episcopal seat with a cathedral, and in the US a city is a “town… incorporated and governed by a mayor and aldermen” (Webster). A city of one million inhabitants or m…