Origins of B.D. Parygins Social Psychology and Its Prospects for Understanding Humans and Society in the Context of Neo-Structuration

The article offers an analysis of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the scientific heritage of B.D. Parygin, on the occasion of the 95-th anniversary of his birth. It reveals the “lines of succession”, the historical and conceptual connections of Parygins’ work with the Russian tradition of social and humanitarian science, traced from the last third of the 19-th century. This is expressed, on the one hand, in the interdisciplinary nature of his approach, integrating psychological developments with sociological and philosophical ones, and, on the other hand, in a special emphasis on the creative spiritual potential of the individual, the understanding of which requires going beyond the logic of determinism from the side of the social context, recognizing the human transformative possibilities in relation to the surrounding world. These features are highly relevant in the context of contemporary challenges associated with radical changes in society, which in social theory have been generalized under the terms “morphogenetic society” and “neo-structuring”, emphasizing the dependence of the evolution of social systems not only on institutionally defined patterns, but also through individual agency, that is, the ability to transform the environment in a direction not determined by social structures. The prospects for applying Parygins’ ideas for topical discussions in the field of labor and education are shown.