Theoretical Dimension of studying the role of the city in the modern day world processes

Abstract

World processes unfold around cities, which become competitive actors of politics, economy, and socio-cultural changes, not lagging behind modern states and supranational entities. The "city" category has an interdisciplinary interpretation and is the subject of investigations by many scientists from various fields of knowledge, therefore it was important for the author to find the political meaning of the category for its further use. The article is devoted to the study of the theoretical and methodological research basis of the political dimension of the role of cities in modern world political processes. Cities in the definition and understanding of their strategic role in world changes are a complex and multifaceted construct. The article offers the author’s interpretation of the "city" category as a limited in size and multidimensional in complexity, legally defined, geographically compact, and historically formed a system of relationships that unites administrative, economic, social, educational, medical, transport, law enforcement, defense, and other subsystems, and aims to ensure the synergy of the comfortable existence of residents, the economic development of the territory and the policy of its influence on the processes of modernity. It is also proven in the article that the role of cities and the nature of their influence on the global processes of modernity are determined by the number of their residents and the starting conditions of development.
The author, having analyzed the interpretation of the content and categories of cities, came to the conclusion about the interdisciplinary nature of the research subject and the feasibility of using the tools of such sciences as economics, social philosophy, political science, urbanism, and cultural studies for one’s own research. The heterogeneity in approaches to the typology of cities is noted. Such categories as "global cities", "megalopolises", "cities of millions", "medium-sized cities", "centers of agglomerations", "small cities" were selected for further analysis.