A city as a space of communities. Methodical essay

Abstract

This article reveals the formation of a structural and ontological concept of such a phenomenon as urban space. At the same time, the city is considered as a system. For this, such elements of the system as its material and primary process were singled out. Namely, the process of citizens' interaction is defined as the material of the system under the investigation. As a primary process, a motivational dichotomy was considered, i.e.: needs and values. As a result of the analysis, the following system categories were singled out and theoretically considered: citizens` activities of everyday livelihood, a sphere of their personal development (individuation), an index of behavioral trends of citizens, cultural and humanitarian infrastructure of a city, an index of cultural life, economic and technocratic infrastructure of a city, indices of household satisfaction and cultural-technocratic balance. Along with the conceptualization of the urban space, the definition of the urban community is also presented as a phenomenon that involves the common worldviews of the citizens and their mental ways (thinking scenarios) to navigate in the social outlook, to be guided by it and to develop it. The systematic logic of the classification of urban communities according to such parameters as the peculiarities of the composition and structure of the ontological equations of communities is revealed and substantiated. The expediency of the proposal regarding the classification of urban communities, first of all, not according to the subject of common interests, but according to the criterion of organizational products of communities - co-activity, activity and agency - is justified. A structural and ontological analysis of the factors determining the stability of the communities from which the urban space is formed was also carried out. In particular, it was found out, firstly, that the composition and structure of a community (internal stability) will affect its sustainability. Secondly, the place and functional role of the community in the higher-order system (functional stability). Third, the characteristics of the interaction of the community (as a system) with other "neighboring" systems (interactive stability).