Talk:Human settlement/Archive 1

Original research

This article appears to all be original research. The dictionary definition of 'settlement' that applies to places where people live is either a colony or or a small community, no bigger than a village.[1][2][3] -- Donald Albury 17:05, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, as it is, this is at the least unsourced and weakly written. But the basic concept for the article is reasonable. I'm surprised that something of better quality doesn't already exist. older ≠ wiser 18:57, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

One problem is finding compatible definitions for different sizes of human communities. In Florida, municipalities can call themselves 'Villages', 'Towns' or Cities' without regard to size. For example, we have incorporated 'Villages' (such as Palmetto Bay, Florida, with more than 24,000 inhabitants) that are much larger than incorporated 'Cities' (such as Fanning Springs, Florida, with less than 1,000 inhabitants). I live in Delray Beach, Florida, a city of more than 60,000 inhabitants that likes to call itself the "village by the sea".[4] Also, see the varieties of meaning for town. -- Donald Albury 16:43, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I'm familiar with the vagaries of municipality categorization. But, if we leave aside the peculiarities of statutory uses describing political units, the treatment of human habitation from anthropological/sociological and urban studies perspectives almost certainly addresses this sort of continuum of development. However, I'm not familiar with the literature of those fields to know what is what, though I seem to recall sitting through some introductory anthropology classes on the topic long, long ago. older ≠ wiser 17:07, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

This doesn't appear to be OR; the term is used in the British GCSE's. [5][6] Kellen ^T 18:58, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Then I can presume that this article was created by someone educated in Britain. This is a good example of why citing sources is so important. I have never heard of this use of 'settlement', and the whole article looked to me like someone's exercise in creativity. There is still the question of the scope of this usage. It doesn't seem to common in the US (the USGS uses 'Populated Place'). The usage is also a far stretch from the dictionary definitions. But, at least now I can see where it came from. -- Donald Albury 00:44, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Move settlement hierarchy?

I suggest moving the section on settlement hierarchies to a separate article, leaving a stub on human settlements that could be expanded. Rjm at sleepers (talk) 08:09, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Now done. Rjm at sleepers (talk) 06:42, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

England and Wales and Scotland

I have reverted a recent change which on gramatical grounds produced the phrase England, Wales and Scotland". I understand what the editor was trying to do, but I believe the result was misleading. There is one regime covering England and Wales and another covering Scotland. The wording I have reverted to may be ineligant, so if anyone can suggest an alternative, please do. Rjm at sleepers (talk) 06:03, 3 September 2011 (UTC)