THE POSSIBILITIES OF APPLYING THE THEORY OF AUTOPOIESIS TO THE ANALYSIS OF THE CITY AS A "LIVING SYSTEM"

The article considers the city through the prism of Niklas Luhmann's theory of systems. In the optics of Luhmann's autopoietic systems, the city does not look like an object, but as a communication system and as a cognitive, self-referential system. The city as a communication system exists in various modes: text, dialogue, metaphysical idea, sociocultural project. As a cognitive system, the city exists as images of perception and representation. It is argued that the objective and semantic chaos of the urban environment acts as a direct synergetic mechanism for the development of the city. The "city" system as a cognitive system is independent, self-sufficient and has its own logic of change. Urban space exists as a continuous inversion of internal characteristics into the external environment and back. It was not society that "gave birth" to the city, but the city that transforms society. The city is a mechanism for the transition of a traditional society into a modern and postmodern one. The city is a driver of new social systems.