The Co-Construction of Self, Identity, and Culture in a Global World

Cultural psychology is built on the principle of mutual constitution, which posits a dynamic interplay where individuals and their cultural contexts continuously shape one another. While research has explored identity through broad cultural categories, the contemporary era of globalization, digital immersion, and social change presents unprecedented complexity. Individuals now navigate multiple, intersecting cultural streams such as local and global, online and offline, inherited and chosen, creating intricate lived experiences at the confluence of cultural worlds. This reality necessitates an intersectional lens to understand how overlapping systems of culture, power, and social position (such as race, gender, class, and language) co-constitute the self.

Understanding the psychological processes through which individuals actively negotiate, integrate, and co-construct their identities within these multifaceted environments is critical. It advances core theories of the self, informs culturally responsive practices in mental health and education, and addresses challenges of social cohesion in diverse societies. This Research Topic aims to address this gap by integrating the mutual constitution framework with intersectional practices. We seek to illuminate the agentic pathways of identity work, moving beyond static comparisons to explore how people dialogue with their complex cultural worlds.

We therefore make a central claim: that the co-construction of identity is a universal psychological process, yet its expression, challenges, and outcomes are fundamentally shaped by the specific cultural domains an individual engages with. This process can be examined through diverse identity projects, including, but not limited to, the navigation of career, religious, political, ethnic, generational, national, digital, and environmental identities. We welcome contributions that employ longitudinal, experimental, narrative, and other innovative methodologies to investigate this core process of co-construction across different contexts and intersections. This collection seeks a comprehensive framework for understanding the dynamic co-construction of identities within global cultural flows.

In summary, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Theoretical and methodological advances in the study of mutual constitution and intersectionality
• Agentic pathways and strategies of identity negotiation in multicultural and digital environments
• The impact of intersecting cultural, social, and power structures (e.g., race, gender, class, nationality) on identity construction
• Case studies of identity work across career, religious, ethnic, political, generational, national, digital, and environmental domains
• Longitudinal or comparative research on identity transformation in response to globalization and migration
• The role of narrative, memory, and meaning-making in dynamic identity projects
• Critical reflections on culturally responsive interventions in education, mental health, or policy
• Experimental and innovative methodological approaches for capturing cultural complexity in self-processes