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Which five features did Max Weber believe defined an urban community?
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Cafes and shops along Montague Street in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
In his 1921 work The City, Max Weber identified five specific attributes that he believed defined an urban community. According to Weber, a true urban community must possess:
- A fortification
- A market
- A law code and court system of its own
- An association of urban citizenry creating a sense of municipal corporateness
- Sufficient political autonomy for urban citizens to choose the city’s governors1
Weber argued that these features were essential for an urban community to function as a unified entity capable of resisting state control. He noted that these characteristics were primarily found in the "Occidental" (Western) tradition, suggesting that "Oriental" cities often failed to meet these criteria due to the influence of familial, tribal, or sectarian identities that hindered the formation of a unified citizenry.1