City policy: a critical analysis of theoretical approaches

The article suggests an analysis of contemporary theoretical approaches in the field of city policy studies. The authors analyze five approaches, both traditionally characteristic of political sciences, and reflecting a depoliticized vision of city life. The main attention is paid to the original concept of the integral city by M. Hamilton, which the authors assigned to the field of the depoliticized ones. The article shows that the concept of integral city is an attempt to combine a philosophical systemic understanding of the city and its empirical description. Consideration of the basic philosophical definitions and reasoning of the concept of integral city allows us to conclude that the philosophical platform integrates a person into the abstract system of holons. On the other hand, the integral city has a political mission: M. Hamilton considers it as a system of forcing people to execute the natural survival algorithm. The authors conclude that the critical rethinking of the basic philosophical axioms of the concept of an integral city is important, as well as the need for a more precise definition of the political management system, that this concept assumes.