Theoretical aspects of the international activity of megacities in the transnational urban network

Introduction. The international activities of megacities in current circumstances are undergoing significant transformations, and new phenomena are emerging that require updating research approaches, clarifying and supplementing the terminology database. The purpose of the article is to explore various types of global cities, based on leading research concepts, to identify the presence of an interconnected system of the genesis of these categories, highlight key features and determine universal criteria for classifying megacities as one or another type of global city, clarify or define key concepts that characterize this object of study. Materials and Methods. As research materials, current works of leading domestic and foreign researchers, as well as data from leading rating agencies and analytical centers in the field of urban studies and urban planning have been used. Methodological basis is made up of a system approach, structural-functional analysis, and an inductive method, which made it possible to reveal the structure of the transnational urban system, to explore the main factors, to determine the general trends and patterns of this object of study. Results. The analysis of the main research concepts of global cities, including “the world city”, “the global city”, “the international city”, “the global information city”, has been carried out, the criteria and features for distinguishing these categories have been proposed, the genesis models and the principles for determining the actual composition of these categories of cities have been studied. The following terms have been clarified or defined. A conceptual framework for the genesis of global cities has been proposed. Discussion and Conclusion. The study revealed that international power centers form a transnational urban network, the nodes of which are urban centers, while global economy, represented by advanced service and manufacturing companies, acts as links. The article is useful to researchers of scientific issues of international activities of subnational territorial units, and can also be used by the relevant central or regional authorities in developing directions or concepts for the development of urban centers as international centers of influence.