Urban identity in a sociocultural scientific lens

The purpose of the article is to systematize, generalize and compare the experience of developing the concept of urban identity in a sociological scientific approach. The time period from the end of the 19th century to the present is considered. Key scientific approaches are identified and described based on the criteria specified by the study - the conceptual understanding of the concepts of “city” and “identity”. It is not possible to make an exhaustive review, since the body of research devoted to the issue of urban identity is very voluminous and interdisciplinary in nature, without rigid boundaries. The article sets the task, through theoretical, historical analysis and comparison, construction of a timeline, to comprehend the phenomenon of urban identity. Also, to trace the continuity and dynamics of development of existing views on the concept of urban identity in the sociological scientific approach.Active interest in urban identity creates many scientific cross-disciplinary developments aimed at identifying the factors and mechanisms of its formation and construction. The data obtained in the article can be relevant in various spheres of urban life and disciplines corresponding to them - architecture, anthropology, sociology, politics, urban economics, etc. In the phenomenological approach in each direction of urban life practices, a keen interest in urban identity is due to the need to understand exactly what kind of city we are dealing with. Preserving terminological clarity, as well as the boundaries between theories and practice, areas of application, and analysis, allows us to study various models of urban identity in foreign, world and domestic scientific schools.