Polycrisis Resource Library

The Polycrisis Resource Library is a growing collection of media that help to understand polycrisis, develop strategies to address polycrisis, and build a field of polycrisis analysis.

Overcoming Systemic Roadblocks to Sustainability: The Evolutionary Redesign of Worldviews, Institutions, and Technologies

February 24, 2009

Rachael Beddoe, Robert Costanza, Joshua Farley, Eric Garza, Jennifer Kent, Ida Kubiszewski, Luz Martineza, Tracy McCowen, Kathleen Murphy, Norman Myers, Zach Ogden, Kevin Stapleton, and John Woodward

The authors propose that socio-ecological systems feature the co-evolution of ecological systems and self-reinforcing complexes of (human) worldviews, institutions, and technologies (WITs). Contemporary WITs arose in a world of abundant…

Global Catastrophic Risks

Global Catastrophic Risks

July 4, 2008

Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Ćirković (eds.)

This book explores global catastrophic risks that threaten civilization and humanity’s continued existence, addressing key methodological, ethical and policy issues. Chapters by leading experts address such risks as astronomical and…

The Perfect Storm: Catastrophic Collapse in the 21st Century

January 1, 2007

Glen Kuecker

Glen Kuecker argues that we are facing a catastrophic collapse of the global system, citing climate change, ecological destruction, pandemics, fuel shortages, warfare, and global hunger as interconnected points of…

Resilience, Adaptability and Transformability in Social-Ecological Systems

January 1, 2004

Brian Walker, C. S. Holling, Stephen R. Carpenter, and Ann Kinzig

The authors argue that “the stability dynamics of all linked systems of humans and nature emerge from three complimentary attributes: resilience, adaptability, and transformability” (p. 1), then distinguish and clarify…

What Is Systemic Risk, and Do Bank Regulators Retard or Contribute to It?

January 1, 2003

George G. Kaufman and Kenneth E. Scott

George G. Kaufman and Kenneth E. Scott provide one of the most often cited definitions of systemic risk as “the risk or probability of breakdowns in an entire system, as…

Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems

August 1, 2001

C. S. Holling

C. S. Holling argues that ecosystems, economies, and societies periodically undergo four stages of an adaptive cycle in which their levels of resilience, connectivity, and wealth (or “potential”) vary in…

Places to Intervene in a System

January 1, 1999

Donella Meadows

Complex systems have leverage points, critical places where a change can profoundly alter system behaviors. Donella Meadows explores twelve leverage points in complex systems using real-world examples. “Leverage points are…

Homeland Earth

Homeland Earth: A Manifesto for the New Millenium

January 1, 1999

Edgar Morin and Anne Brigitte Kern

This book contains the earliest use of the term polycrisis. Edgar Morin and Anne Brigitte Kern argue that “one is at a loss to single out a number one problem…

The Collapse of Complex Societies

January 1, 1988

Joseph A. Tainter

After explaining the shortcomings of other accounts of societal collapses, Joseph Tainter presents his own, universal theory. Societies, he argues, are problem solving organizations that solve an unending stream of…

About the Resource Library

The Polycrisis Resource Library includes resources that:

  • Comment on the polycrisis as a concept and as a present global reality
  • Undertake similar analysis using different—but related—concepts
  • Analyze crisis interactions among multiple global systems

Though not exhaustive, the Library strives to present a diverse representation of views on different aspects of the polycrisis discussion, and will be updated as that discussion evolves. Search for resources with the keyword search bar, or by using the drop-down menus to filter for type of resource, global systems addressed, and key themes.

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