Zoom in:
Planet —> Continent —> Nation —> Region —> Area —> Town —> Community —> Village —> Neighborhood —> Watch Group —> Dwelling —> Person.
You have arrived, but you are likely skeptical. Did you have a sense that these words were in order?
The world is not wholly man-made or natural, but a combination of both — to us humanoids anyway. Who knows what the animals think of what we've made, like the deer that tries to cut through my "yard" every spring. Like the deer, I think a good many people are bewildered by the array of jurisdictions and systems we have made. So let's just look at the basic model for awhile. Don't worry about islands, oceans, or moons.
This remix will focus on a couple aspects of the 'Area' level of the model.
A Region is a collection of various Areas. 'Area' is the only level in the model where there are different instances possible, Urban or Rural.
Obviously, an Urban Area is a city or a constellation of city and town centers - The Tri-Cities, Twin Cities, Dallas-Fort Worth. Note that there is no "City" level in the Zoom List above. Metro(politan) area is an urban area is a metropolis may be a city the world around. They can be interesting structures in themselves, but for the sake of naming in the model, let's use the term Urban Area.
A Rural Area can contain Towns and smaller entities, but not a city — that's why it's rural! A Rural Area can also be a wilderness, a forest, a desert, and so on, things with little or no "built environment".
In rural areas, you may find an isolated dwelling or village. A rural community can exist with a town 50 miles away. In rural areas, any number of levels might be folded into one. A rural community might consist of a single village with one or maybe two neighborhoods. All depends on size.
We know the world isn't just geographic — there's a human dimension. Families live in dwellings. People form nations and tribes. So, to begin there, we'll introduce the notion of virtual, spiritual, and cultural communities, in the next World Remixed.
