The Morphodynamics of Transcendence as a Condition of Meaning-generating Agency: An Extension of the Morphogenetic Model in Critical Realism

Contemporary societies increasingly operate within rhythmic regimes dominated by technical acceleration, algorithmic anticipation, and systemic optimization. These transformations fundamentally affect the conditions under which human agency, reflexivity, and meaning-generation remain possible. Drawing on the framework of critical realism, this article argues that the current crisis of meaning cannot be adequately explained solely through relational, cultural, or psychological diagnoses. Instead, it requires a reconstruction of the ontological conditions of agency itself. Building upon Margaret S. Archer’s morphogenetic model (T1-T4), the article introduces the concept of morphodynamics, extended by an axiological level designated as T0 (axiostructure). This level is not an additional phase of social change but an ontological condition of possibility for reflexivity and sense-generating action. The article further develops the notion of chrono-hope, understood as a rhythm of action grounded in ontological openness to the future rather than in technical predictability or adaptive coping. By integrating insights from critical realism, digital anthropology, and contemporary diagnoses of acceleration and fatigue, the article proposes a typology of agency that distinguishes adaptive, instrumental, emancipatory, blocked, and transcending forms of action. Empirical references to contemporary youth research are interpreted diagnostically as manifestations of suspended agency at the level of reflexive mediation (T2). The article concludes that hope, understood not as emotion but as an ontological structure, constitutes a necessary condition of meaning-generating agency in late modern digital societies. In this sense, the morphodynamics of transcendence provides an analytical framework for diagnosing the conditions and limits of agency in the contemporary crisis of meaning.