Philosophical Analysis of the Theoretical and Methodological Foundations of the Discursive Representation of Urban Identity

The aim of the article is a socio-philosophical analysis of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the discursive representation of urban identity in the scientific works of domestic and foreign authors. The following tasks were set and solved in the work: (1) analysis of theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding the city in philosophy; (2) analysis of existing approaches to the philosophical conceptualization of urban space as a living environment; (3) analysis of existing approaches to the conceptualization of the concept “city space” as a construct of places significant for citizens; (4) nalysis of existing approaches to the conceptualization of the concepts “place” and “nonplace” of the city. To solve the problem associated with the study of theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding the city, the following theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the problem were analyzed: social constructionism (P. Berger, T. Lukman, M. Foucault); critical discourse analysis (N. Fairclough); humanitarian geography (D.N. Zamyatin, I.I. Mitin); geographical hermeneutics (H.-G. Gadamer, V.L. Kagansky, I.N. Kornev); ecoanthropocentric paradigm (T. Dridze). The study analyzes the main approaches to the study of the city that are relevant for modern social philosophy: the functional approach (H. Lefebvre, L. Mumford, J. Habermas); the socio-cultural or environmental approach (V.L. Glazychev, T. Dridze). In the part of the article devoted to solving the problem of conceptualizing the concept “city space”, the results of the sociophilosophical analysis of the theory of social space based on the works of P. Bourdieu (the concept “social space” and the principle of vision and separation of spaces developed by him), H. Lefebvre (the concept of space reproduction), M. Foucault (the concept “disciplinary space”) are presented. When solving the problem, to address the existing approaches to the conceptualization of the notions “place” and “non-place” of the city, the article presents an analysis of the points of view of domestic and foreign authors, divided us into two groups: (1) M. Auge, D. Harvey, G.Z. Hagan (the place of the city as the connecting link between the physical space of the city and citizens) and (2) B.I. Serov, M. Castells (place as the point in space that passes through flows and movements, it does not have to be historical, identifying, binding, or authentic). The research material presented in the article allows forming a holistic understanding of the philosophy of the city as an independent philosophical direction, clarifying and detailing the theoretical and methodological resources of the theory of perception of urban space and representation of urban identity in order to find answers to topical questions in modern urban space research. The conclusions and materials presented in the work can be used in the preparation of lecture courses on the philosophy of the city and the phenomenology of space, theoretical urban studies, writing textbooks in the designated areas and conducting subsequent theoretical research.

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