Trends in the Evolution of the European City

The article examines the relevant trends in the development of a modern European city using socio-cultural methodology and the systematic approach. The study demonstrates that the evolution of the European urban space is now taking place holistically, affecting the unity of the social, natural and individual dimensions of urban life. The proposed system of trends in the evolution of the European city is considered in the article as an interdependent triad of creativity, smart development and inclusivity and at the same time an actual standard in the ongoing theoretical discussions about the “good city” and their practical applications. The foundation of the movement towards the optimal functioning of the European city rests on the creatively formulated goals of urbanisation. It is revealed that without creativity, neither movement towards sustainable urban development nor the productive evolution of inclusive urban strategies is possible. It is established that at this stage of the formation of the information society in Europe, it is the expansion of the inclusiveness of urban living spaces that is the most difficult problem to solve, both because of its complexity and the lack of a consensual theoretical foundation for its vision. It is demonstrated that theoretical research of this kind is largely positively correlated with the strategies recorded in official EU documents, as well as the participation of supranational structures in financing urbanisation programmes. In the second quarter of the XXI century in order to optimise this problematic urban scenario it will be necessary to adopt and then implement some absolutely non-trivial strategies, the content of which is not yet completely obvious.

European city,, traditions and innovations, European culture, information society, urbanisation trends, the triad “creativity, smart development, inclusivity”