11 The Archaeology of Intermediate-Scale Socio-Spatial Units in Urban Landscapes

Abstract

In this chapter, we argue that research on intermediate-scale socio-spatial units can benefit from collective action theory. Accordingly, we posit that institutions developed to promote cooperation help shape urban landscapes. A cross-cultural sample of 30 premodern states from East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, Europe, Mesoamerica, and South America is used to evaluate this hypothesis. The results indicate that highly collective cities tended to be large and dense with public investment in road networks, canal systems, public drinking water, and uniform administrative wards (neighborhoods) centered on public buildings or spaces. In cases with lower collectivity, centralized investment in public goods tended to be comparatively lower. Cities varied from dispersed, low-density settlements to disordered, large, dense aggregations. In the dense settlements, some residents organized at the neighborhood scale to solve collective action problems associated with public goods supplies, whereas others did not. In dispersed urban landscapes, neither the state nor local social groups organized to solve collective action problems. In low-collectivity cases, other factors such as patron–client relationships, forced resettlement, kinship, etc. predominate. Thus, we conclude that archaeological analysis of urban landscapes can provide information on the political-economic strategies employed by the state and other members of society.