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Genesis and evolution of the concept of societal in the social and human sciences. Part 2. Receptions of the concept of the “societal” in Ukrainian academic discourse

stmm. 2026 (2): 145-155

DOI

Full text:

OLENA SUSHYI, Doctor of Sciences in Public Administration, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Mass and Community Psychology, Institute for Social and Political Psychology, NAES of Ukraine (15, Andriivska St., Kyiv, 04070)

olena.sushyi@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4364-7571

EDUARD AFONIN, Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Professor, President of the NGO “Scientific Society ‘Ukrainian School of Archetypes’” (4/23, Kostia Hordienka Ln., Kyiv, 01024)

bpafonin@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7493-6907

The article explores the transformation of the concept of the societal within the Ukrainian socio-humanitarian discourse and proposes an innovative methodological perspective for analyzing social processes. It reconstructs the historical and theoretical origins of the idea, examines the peculiarities of its integration into the national intellectual context, and identifies the key semantic transformations of the notion. It is established that the Ukrainian tradition lacks a direct analogue to the Western term “societal”, which has led to conceptual ambiguity between the categories “social,” “societal,” and “public.” This ambiguity, however, has contributed to the emergence of a metaperspective understanding of the societal as an integral property of social organization capable of uniting different levels of social being. The concepts of O. Donchenko, V. Bekh, and V. Shulha are analyzed as representing distinct epistemological angles of interpreting social reality through the prism of the societal-namely, the psychosocial, systemic, and structural-normative dimensions, respectively-while jointly demonstrating the potential of this idea as a foundation for an integrative analytical framework that transcends the fragmentation of social analysis. On this basis, the article advances the concept of societal dynamics as an analytical metaperspective for comprehending social reality. Societal dynamics is defined as the process of change and interaction among the structural components of society, generating new qualitative states of the social whole. A synergetic perspective serves as its methodological foundation, within which the societal is conceptualized as a dynamic field of emergent interactions spanning the micro–macro range. The methodological potential of this concept for social forecasting is substantiated in terms of providing a holistic explanation of the multidimensional manifestations of social reality, integrating its multilevel structures, and specifying the dynamics of societal processes. In the Ukrainian context, societal dynamics acquires particular significance for studying social transformations driven by war and post-war challenges and emerges as a universal analytical instrument of contemporary socio-humanitarian cognition and the comprehension of social reality in its increasing dynamism and complexity.

Keywords: societal; societal dynamics; socio-humanitarian discourse; meta-analysis; synergy; synergetic methodology; emergence; social transformations

References:

Afonin, E.A. & Martynov, A.Yu. (2024). Societal Dynamics: Analysis of Socio-Transformational Processes in Ukraine and the World (1992–2024). [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Publishing House “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.” [=Афонін, Мартинов 2024].

Bekh, V.P. (1999). The Social Organism of the Country. [In Ukrainian]. Zaporizhzhia: Zaporizhzhia State University. [=Бех 1999].

Donchenko, Ye.A. (1994). Societal Psyche. [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Naukova Dumka. [=Донченко 1994].

Sushyi, O.V. (Ed.). (2023). Psychology in Forecasting Social Processes. A Monograph / Authors: T. Danylova, V. Zhovtianska, O. Kukharuk, O. Malkhazov, & O. Sushyi. Kropyvnytskyi: Imeks-LTD. Retrieved from: https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/735170/1/Sushyi_K-mono_2023.pdf [=Суший 2023].

Chernysh, N. (2019). Ukrainian Sociology in Search of a General Theory under the Conditions of Interdisciplinarity. [In Ukrainian]. Socium, 2(69), 9–34. https://doi.org/10.15407/socium2019.02.009

Shulha, M. (2018). The Failure of the Social Matrix. [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Mazel, H. (1896). La Synergie sociale. Paris.

Received 05.12.2025

Accepted for publication after review 05.01.2026

Genesis and evolution of the concept of societal in the social and human sciences. Part 2. Receptions of the concept of the “societal” in Ukrainian academic discourse

stmm. 2026 (2): 145-155

DOI

Full text:

OLENA SUSHYI, Doctor of Sciences in Public Administration, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Mass and Community Psychology, Institute for Social and Political Psychology, NAES of Ukraine (15, Andriivska St., Kyiv, 04070)

olena.sushyi@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4364-7571

EDUARD AFONIN, Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Professor, President of the NGO “Scientific Society ‘Ukrainian School of Archetypes’” (4/23, Kostia Hordienka Ln., Kyiv, 01024)

bpafonin@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7493-6907

The article explores the transformation of the concept of the societal within the Ukrainian socio-humanitarian discourse and proposes an innovative methodological perspective for analyzing social processes. It reconstructs the historical and theoretical origins of the idea, examines the peculiarities of its integration into the national intellectual context, and identifies the key semantic transformations of the notion. It is established that the Ukrainian tradition lacks a direct analogue to the Western term “societal”, which has led to conceptual ambiguity between the categories “social,” “societal,” and “public.” This ambiguity, however, has contributed to the emergence of a metaperspective understanding of the societal as an integral property of social organization capable of uniting different levels of social being. The concepts of O. Donchenko, V. Bekh, and V. Shulha are analyzed as representing distinct epistemological angles of interpreting social reality through the prism of the societal-namely, the psychosocial, systemic, and structural-normative dimensions, respectively-while jointly demonstrating the potential of this idea as a foundation for an integrative analytical framework that transcends the fragmentation of social analysis. On this basis, the article advances the concept of societal dynamics as an analytical metaperspective for comprehending social reality. Societal dynamics is defined as the process of change and interaction among the structural components of society, generating new qualitative states of the social whole. A synergetic perspective serves as its methodological foundation, within which the societal is conceptualized as a dynamic field of emergent interactions spanning the micro–macro range. The methodological potential of this concept for social forecasting is substantiated in terms of providing a holistic explanation of the multidimensional manifestations of social reality, integrating its multilevel structures, and specifying the dynamics of societal processes. In the Ukrainian context, societal dynamics acquires particular significance for studying social transformations driven by war and post-war challenges and emerges as a universal analytical instrument of contemporary socio-humanitarian cognition and the comprehension of social reality in its increasing dynamism and complexity.

Keywords: societal; societal dynamics; socio-humanitarian discourse; meta-analysis; synergy; synergetic methodology; emergence; social transformations

References:

Afonin, E.A. & Martynov, A.Yu. (2024). Societal Dynamics: Analysis of Socio-Transformational Processes in Ukraine and the World (1992–2024). [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Publishing House “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.” [=Афонін, Мартинов 2024].

Bekh, V.P. (1999). The Social Organism of the Country. [In Ukrainian]. Zaporizhzhia: Zaporizhzhia State University. [=Бех 1999].

Donchenko, Ye.A. (1994). Societal Psyche. [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Naukova Dumka. [=Донченко 1994].

Sushyi, O.V. (Ed.). (2023). Psychology in Forecasting Social Processes. A Monograph / Authors: T. Danylova, V. Zhovtianska, O. Kukharuk, O. Malkhazov, & O. Sushyi. Kropyvnytskyi: Imeks-LTD. Retrieved from: https://lib.iitta.gov.ua/735170/1/Sushyi_K-mono_2023.pdf [=Суший 2023].

Chernysh, N. (2019). Ukrainian Sociology in Search of a General Theory under the Conditions of Interdisciplinarity. [In Ukrainian]. Socium, 2(69), 9–34. https://doi.org/10.15407/socium2019.02.009

Shulha, M. (2018). The Failure of the Social Matrix. [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Mazel, H. (1896). La Synergie sociale. Paris.

Received 05.12.2025

Accepted for publication after review 05.01.2026

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