ON ESTABLISHING THE ESSENCE AND TYPOLOGY OF TERRITORIAL COMMUNITY IDENTITY

Abstract

The article outlines the novelty and urgency of researching both the notion of identity and the variety of identities within a territorial community as a factor that unites its members, as well as an integral component of promoting territorial development to achieve a community’s capacity taking into consideration current stage and activities within the reform of local self-government and territorial organization of authorities. It also determines the concept of identity as a set of interrelated features, phenomena, traditions, principles, real world objects that can be used to identify a territorial community from all others on the basis of its uniqueness. The author generalises the existing in domestic and foreign research typological classifications of identity types, analyses and provides a detailed description of different types of identity specified according to the defined criteria, namely the type of culture background (ligitimatimizing identity, project identity, resistance identity), genesis (natural, artificial, inborn, obtained), involvement of community members (individual and group), values that the identity of a territorial community is based upon (social, territorial (or territorial-and-spacial), by the manifestation in a particular sphere (social, political, ethnic, religious, cultural, sociocultural, civic, military, economic and others), by the time of appearance (existing and strategic). Moreover, the author identifies and gives a detailed description of the criteria used in different classifications of identity. These criteria might be used to analyse the forming of territorial community identity which is aimed to make the community capable. It has been established that different types of identity of a territorial community may become more or less pressing and urgent, change, become dominant or marginal under different conditions. The author also reasoned the necessity to take into consideration the variety of identities of a territorial community in the process of developing political programmes and activities that may help territorial communities become capable.