THE COMPETITIVENESS OF CITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS FOR INCREASING COMFORT

In the context of globalization, every city solves the problem of increasing competitiveness and self-sufficiency. However, this decision without performing a primary function - to create an environment of life and of human reproduction - is socially and economically unjustified. Environment should be comfortable and cities should be developed on the basis of relatively competitive interaction and co-operation which is not always performed. This explains the relevance of the study, in which the authors followed the works of: Kotler F., Bramezza I., Begg I., Kendall E. The purpose of research is to find theoretical and methodical substantiation of city competitiveness evaluating comfort items in the context of globalization. To achieve this objective the authors solved the problems: 1) the competitiveness of cities from the view of the comfort of living in the context of globalization is defined; 2) the competitiveness of cities and evaluation of total indicators characterizing the comfort of living is estimated; suggestions to improve it are justified; 3) an overview of best practices and global trends in the light of improving the competitiveness of cities is given, the directions of approaching these goals in Russian cities are defined. The subject of research is the factors determining the competitiveness of the city from the view of the comfort of living, and its object is the city as a socioeconomic system. The theoretical and methodical approach proposed is original, reliable, flexible; has the possibility of forecast verification of the competitiveness of modern cities in the context of globalization.