# city (place)

a big place where many people stay and work within a system of structures

- Computed level: L7 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: common  ·  Arena: city

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [people](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-people.social), [structure](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-structure.arrangement), [work](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-work.effort), [space](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-space.extent), [big](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-big.size), [persist](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-persist.continue), [system](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-system.organized)

**Through:** people stay and work together in a place that is a structure of many parts

**Novel properties:**
- organized habitation
- collective persistence
- structured complexity

## Examples
- Tokyo sustains over 37 million residents across interconnected wards, railways, and utilities. *(institutions)*
- Chicago grew around the Illinois-Michigan Canal and expanded its sewer system to avoid flooding. *(engineering)*
- Mumbai's Dharavi district hosts over 700,000 workers in a dense network of homes and informal factories. *(economics)*

## Used by
- [chicago](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-chicago.city) (L13)
- [washington](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-washington.city) (L12)

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-city.place*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-city.place.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*