Rational city: Universal rationality versus multiple rational urban strategies

The issue of either universal or “regional” nature of rationality can potentially be given some new insights through the example of urban studies. Is city a rational structure? Does it have only one or multiple strategies of rationality? This paper attempts to give a possible answer to the scope of these complex epistemological questions. Alternative sources of rational city behavior are presented in a number of groups of interest: city residents and urban movements, local government, business, etc. All of them have certain goals and ways of their achievement. Although they differ, we cannot doubt their rational nature. At the same time, the conflicting manner of city interactions makes coming to terms with each other a tall order. Urban planning as a movement and an institutional mediator of structural and organizational city changes is constantly in the process of paradigmatic changes: starting from utopian projects, through rational comprehensive planning to communicative planning and, finally, to a technocratic “operational system” city. All these transitions encourage us to analyze thoroughly the issue of urban rationality.