Cities are different in physical, social and economic terms. They offer their residents a far wider range of options and opportunities and enable them to engage in many more interests and activities than are possible in rural areas. They are places with large numbers of people, factories, offices, shops and recreational facilities which facilitate, support and promote a variety of lifestyles which are distinctively urban in character and differ fundamentally from those which occur elsewhere. A case can be made that global society is increasingly urban in character. Cities are points of production and reproduction of urban culture. As major and dense concentrations of production and reproduction of urban culture. As major and dense concentrations of population drawn from many different backgrounds, they are places in which a diverse array of beliefs, styles, values and attitudes originate, ferment and flourish. These combine in the form of patterns of assosiation and lifestyle which are distinctively urban in character and differ maekedly from those which exist in rural areas. Such modes of though and behaviour are carried and spread by movements of people and flows of information and ideas well beyond city boundaries so that they influence and can be adopted by populations across the world. Human society is becoming urbanised in the sense that increasing numbers of people are being exposed to and are absorbing the social values which arise out of and are most closely associated with life in cities. Some of the key questions in urban geography concern the nature of global urbanism and ways and extent to which it interacts with and so may be destroying, modifying or reinforcing traditional local cultures. The world economy is capitalist in formation, in that it is based upon principles of private rather than state ownership of the means of production and seeks to generate profits through the manipulation of land, labour, fianance and entrepreneurship. It is primarily concerned with making and providing goods and services, be they computer equipment, cars, televisions, food, textiles, weapons or media products, for global consumption.