Editorial

摘要

Randomness, cities, and urban order To those who have not thought much about it, the idea that cities and societies might be random in some way is almost an anathema. Yet not quite. In financial markets we have grown accustomed to thinking of the prices of stocks and shares as being random from day to day, notwithstanding long cycles and short collapses, but even here there is continued debate. Taleb's (2004) book Fooled by Randomness says it all. When it comes to cities, there is a sense that the same degree of order perceived in physical and some biological systems does not exist, while some consider cities to be quite disordered. Witness the many quotes particularly from the late 19th century when the industrial city was in the ascendancy, such as William Morris's (1890) railing against London in his many references to the "miseries of the Great Wen", and "the wretched suburbs".