Reconsidering the concept of sustainability: personal adaptability dynamics as predictor of positive change

Abstract

Abstract The article deals with the attempt to reconstruct the concept of sustainable development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The literature review supported the idea that the studies devoted to the features of sustainability in social systems are extremely fragmentary. The authors provided a holistic vision of the process of sustainable development in terms of a dialectical self-organization of open living systems. To accomplish this goal, a number of studies have been conducted at different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings confirmed a strong relationship between the psychological and social level of adaptation (as a manifestation of the adaptability/sustainability of the individual) to the conditions of the pandemic. This helps considering indicators of psychological stability as a predictor of social sustainability. The prospect of the further research consists in the reinterpretation of the current world in terms of a rhythmic, emergent, hybrid and innovative (REHI-world) self-organization of open living systems.