City and its researchers: social-philosophical focus on the concepts and explanations of the city phenomenon

Abstract

The article deals with the main theoretical and methodological approaches to the analysis and definition of the city. It is highlighted that modern authors again and again draw attention to the need for a holistic approach to the phenomenon of the city and tend to multidisciplinary urban studies. In the Ukrainian philosophical thought, the beginning of this work is laid in the philosophy of the city by L. Radionova, who proposes "to build a city in the cultural space as a kind of ontological idea", in viewing the city as the world of human existence by M. Karpovets or presenting the idea of the city as its myth. At the present stage under the conditions of civilizational crises and collision of various cultural orientations unfolding in urban spaces, it becomes clear that the city is not only an arena for these processes, but sometimes also their condition, an active participant and, in the end, their consequence. There is a necessity to develop a theory of the city that could simultaneously comprehend the city as a dynamic cultural form in general and as specific processes that take place in urban environments. The article deals with the main theoretical and methodological approaches in urban studies. The focus is on new multidisciplinary approaches to the phenomenon of city. Such us the theory of the own logic of the cities according to the research team of Darmstadt University; and the SPACE (D) system that focuses on the city from the standpoint of sociology, politics, architecture, city culture, urban economics and city data.