City identity as a social and psychological phenomenon

Within the scope of psychological knowledge there is an objective need for understanding a phenomenon of city identity for the purpose of deepening the scientific psychological knowledge of this concept’s nature, properties and the main components, as well as for practical regulation of migratory processes and the relations between various ethnic, religious and other social groups. The importance of the research on the subject of city identity consists also in its influence on improvement of image of the city, development of its brand, promoting and recognition of the specific settlement, and, as a result, attracting investors and increasing city’s competitiveness. Competent use of knowledge of this phenomenon and its features can mediate an increase in level of life satisfaction among city’s population. At the same time we can observe a deficit of scientific psychological research of city identity. The importance of carrying out scientific research of this phenomenon is in detail categorized in the article. The problem of city identity is of a cross-disciplinary nature. As a result of that, theoretical approaches were taken to understand city identity as a component of the social identity which reflects the feeling of territorial accessory and awareness by the inhabitant of unique lines, stories, symbols and signs of the city. The author of the article allocates and analyses the main characteristics of city identity, such as the importance of social aspect when forming city consciousness, integration of internal and external properties of this phenomenon, availability of specific functions, designing an image of the city in the course of interpersonal interaction.