Historical and sociological retrospective of the research on involvement of an individual in the communicative space of a city

The paper analyses social mechanisms of inclusion in urban space in historical and sociological retrospective. The research examines the evolution of views on the factors of involvement in urban space in sociological urban theories. Sociological understanding of involvement in urban space included the analysis and reconstruction of views of the German classics of sociology (F. Engels, M. Weber, F. Tönnies, G. Simmel), representatives of the Chicago school of sociology (R. Park, L. Wirth, E. Burgess), individual-oriented urbanistic theories (J. Gehl, J. Jacobs), the theory of right to the city (A. Lefebvre, D. Harvey, D. Mitchell), the theory of the third place of R. Oldenburg, the concept of the information city of M. Castels, and the media-city concept of S. McQuire. The author systematized and generalized the factors of involvement of an individual in urban space. The position in the system of social and economic relations, the evolved system of pedestrian public spaces, and modern information and communication technologies were identified as the most significant drivers of involvement in urban space.