ТЕОРЕТИКО-МЕТОДОЛОГІЧНІ ЗАСАДИ ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ МІСЬКОЇ ІСТОРІЇ В СУЧАСНІЙ ВІТЧИЗНЯНІЙ ІСТОРІОГРАФІЇ
THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH URBAN HISTORY IN MODERN DOMESTIC HISTORIOGRAPHY

Summary/Abstract: The article attempts to analyze the state of development of such important theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of urban history as the definition of the concept of "city", its typology and functional purpose in modern domestic historiography, clarification of the main achievements in the study of this problem and questions that have not found their sufficient illumination. The conducted analysis gives reasons to claim that over the past decades, there has been a significant growth of research interest in the raised problem, which eventually transformed into a stable scientific direction. This testifies to the scientific development of urban history not only at the factual, but also at the theoretical, methodological, and conceptual levels. The author emphasized that the majority of researchers adhere to the opinion that an obvious single definition of the concept of «city» generally does not exist and cannot exist. Such a statement is justified by the fact that, firstly, the city, being a complex system, appears to the researcher from one or more sides. And depending on the tasks, one or another direction in urbanism is able to pass off these aspects as universal principles. Secondly, cities develop both in space and in time, so they cannot be similar to each other like billiard balls from the same set. Therefore, when it is impossible to give an unambiguous interpretation, the question arises regarding the classification of cities, however, even here researchers enter the shaky ground of uncertainty, since there are a thousand ways to classify this material according to its political, economic or social characteristics. The author emphasized that today in the national historiography there is a certain change in the direction of the development of urban history. Using the experience of foreign and domestic researchers led scientists to think about the futility of trying to define the city using a frozen set of criteria and signs, as it was done before. Scientists are gradually beginning to understand the city first of all as a complex, dynamic socio-cultural universe, which causes a change in the paradigm of knowledge about the city in general. Therefore, in modern Ukrainian historiography, studies of the urban phenomenon, which have an interdisciplinary character, are becoming the most relevant. It can be argued that a new approach is being formed in the study of the city, which takes into account its multifunctionality, the combination of various functions in it - economic, administrative, cultural. Considering the complexity of the problem raised and the need for its further study, the issue of developing a toolkit, systematizing methodological approaches, research principles and methods, and forming the subject field of urban history is urgent.

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