The article formulates a range of problems related to both the contemporary Philosophy of the City and studies of the semantic space of the urban environment. The multidirectional intentions of the authors of this issue are summarized with a search for specific links between identity processes and the formation of spatial-territorial “fields”. This view lets us focus on the study of the urban environment in the 21 century including describing space in the city as “zones of cultural exclusion” (such as closed access areas, marginalized territories and other geographically isolated spaces) in their correlation with urban cultural topos.
Modern meta-cities as huge public spaces require discourse on identity and identification within the current Philosophy of the City. The “reassembling” of urban spaces, according to the actor-network theory, is considered in the context of rethinking the questions of urban identities.
Issue’s focus is on the boundaries of identity and spatial boundaries in the city as well as on cultural and social practices that transform territorial barriers, remove old ones and contribute to the emergence of new ones. There is a connection between this modern phenomenon and the historical processes preceding it. The article provides examples of such an appeal to the experience of the past. Among the other approaches to this topic, the article presents studies completed on literary material, where the search for identity occurs in the conditions of constructing or overcoming borders. The ways of cultural identity are traced, including these of language and border areas of language culture.