Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Psychology
2025. Vol. 15, no. 3, 352–370
ISSN: 2658-3607 / 2658-6010 (online)
Ongoing Transformations: Human, world, methodology
Abstract
The article discusses the key transformations of the present era, the changes occurring in humanity and the world, as well as the challenges associated with research strategies for studying these processes. Among the primary factors driving these transformations, scholars highlight globalization and digitalization, along with the phenomenon of blending various trends, known under different names: hybridization, creolization, and mixing. Change, complexity, diversification, and turbulence have become the focus of attention and reflection in the social sciences. However, at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the issue of an inadequate methodological and terminological framework for describing contemporary transformations emerged. Both humanity and the world have developed characteristics that are either invisible or not fully reflected in models built on previous conceptions of reality. The understanding of the present in terms of becoming, processuality, and ongoing changes in humanity and the world is reflected in several overarching scientific concepts, such as the metamodernism paradigm, the concept of liquid modernity, the theory of supercomplexity, the notion of superdiversity, the “overheated world” framework, and the “perfect storm” model. The authors of these concepts agree that studying change requires new methodological strategies and a more refined analytical toolkit. These new methodological approaches are ultimately aimed at developing inter- and transdisciplinarity. Through an analysis of the aforementioned concepts, the article substantiates ideas regarding the relevance of methodological strategies in studying contemporary transformations. It argues that achieving methodological relevance should be centered around two interdependent movements: (1) from liquid modernity to liquid methodology and (2) from a changing world to a changing researcher. Transdisciplinarity in action is presented as a mechanism of conscious self-learning by the researcher directly in the process of investigation.
General Information
Keywords: methodology, transformation, supercomplexity, superdiversity, identity, human and the world, transdisciplinarity in action
Journal rubric: Theoretical and Methodological Problems in Psychology
Article type: scientific article
Received 24.02.2025
Accepted
Published
For citation: Guseltseva, M.S. (2025). Ongoing Transformations: Human, world, methodology. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Psychology, 15(3), 352–370. (In Russ.). URL: https://psyjournals.ru/en/journals/vspu_psychology/archive/2025_n3/Guseltseva (viewed: 17.02.2026)
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