Voluntary Camps and Practical Machine Sites What these Non-Urban Settlements Teach Us about Urbanism

I discuss two categories of settlement that resemble cities in limited ways. Voluntary camps are places away from settlements where people gather for short periods. They are dense settings of intense social activity and communitas that teach us about urban-related social processes of gathering at high densities. Practical machine sites is Kevin Lynch’s term for regimented settlements established by a dominant institution for a specific practical purpose. These teach us about the roles of central planning and control and their relationship with the social dynamics of longer-term occupation. A fuller, comparative understanding of these various anomalous urban settlements can help us develop better explanations of settlements and urban dynamics in the past and the present.