Development of Social Communities and Public Space of the City and Urbanistic Discourse

Abstract

The article deals with a number of problems related to establishment of public space of a municipality and the role of urbanistic discourse in its development. The pre-requisites of these phenomena are the accelerating urbanization and the consequent changes (both common and specific for countries and cities) in urban environment for residents. Resulting from automobilization, urbanization and ghettoization of districts, the city center is losing its status of the city core. Streets, squares and parks are also becoming less socially important. What may help restore their importance is the emergence of a new type of social communities based on the trends of the new urban planning that solves the problem of residents’ social isolation and turns residents into citizens. In this context, a social community that features public activities is called «public space» Introduction of digital communications into urban milieu enables creating a new form of public space. Via modern communications and the mass media, urban residents satisfy their need for socializing, and act not only as consumers of cultural and social opportunities of the city, but also as its active reorganizers. The authors infer that urbanistic discourse reflects interests of residents, urban communities, municipal authorities and groups of urbanization experts in urban environment development. Thus, topicality of urbanistic discourse is explained by the new trends in urban transformation, formation of social communities, and the diversity of modern means of communication.