Conceptualization of the "image of the future" and the "image of the city" and their mutual heuristic potential

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of the variants of the meaning of the scientific categories "image of the future" and "image of the city". The subject of the study is the process of forming the conceptual certainty of these stable phrases. Hermeneutical analysis acts as its leading method, aimed at identifying the meanings in which the analyzed phrases are used. Comparative analysis allows us to establish the heuristic potential of the concepts "image of the future" and "image of the city" used in one study. In the article, the author examines the emergence of the analyzed concepts in the second half of the 20th century, their functioning in various scientific contexts. Special attention is paid to their heuristic potential within the framework of social philosophy. The scientific novelty of the study consists in distinguishing four meanings of the concept of "image of the city" – as "image of a real city", in which, based on personal impressions, a generalized representation is formed that captures the uniqueness of a particular urban space, "artistic image of the city" captured in painting, literature, cinema, music, "stereotypical image of the city" as generalized-the normative idea of a well-known, historically significant city, and the "philosophical image of the city" as a speculative model of human settlement, the main parameters of which are socially determined. The main conclusions of the behavioral research concern the possibility of considering the image of the city as an element of the image of the future, capturing ideas about society, its structure, economy, politics, spiritual practices, social expectations of the time in which it is created. The author of the article suggests considering the study of the image of the city as one of the methods of studying the images of the future.