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.

The Good News Hidden inside Today’s ‘Polycrisis’

Zurich Insurance Group

The article considers the novelty and utility of the polycrisis concept, alongside the difficulties of addressing the polycrisis. It concludes that “the growing use of the term polycrisis is in…

Investing in the Age of Polycrisis

Sunil Krishnan

This article by the Head of Multi-Asset Funds proposes that the UK economy and global equities are potential losers of the polycrisis, while equities in healthcare, energy, and raw materials…

This is Why ‘Polycrisis’ is a Useful Way of Looking at the World Right Now

Adam Tooze, Kate Whiting, and HyoJin Park

World Economic Forum Agenda writer Kate Whiting interviews Columbia University historian Adam Tooze about the polycrisis at the WEF’s 2023 Summit in Davos, covering such topics as the history of…

Transformation in the Poly-Crisis Age

Sandrine Dixson-Declève et al.

This policy brief recommends that the European Union must shift from short-term crises responses to the long term systemic transformations required by a polycrisis era. It argues: “Today’s challenges require…

Dismissing the Term ‘Polycrisis’ has One Inevitable Consequence – Reality Always Bites

Thomas Homer-Dixon, Michael Lawrence, and Scott Janzwood

The authors respond to criticism of the use of the word “polycrisis”, arguing that the world’s current crises are in many ways unprecedented and thus merit a new word and…

On the ‘Polycrisis’ Part II: Philosophies of History & Crises in Political Thought

Bo Harvey

Building on an earlier post, Bo Harvey begins with the question “what might the popularity of [the term] polycrisis say about the weaknesses of current critical analyses of capitalism?” and…

Why the World Feels so Unstable Right Now

Tim Palmer

Tim Palmer discusses the challenges of predicting events in nonlinear systems that, by nature, experience intermittent instabilities, as in the famous “butterfly effect”. Today, continued emissions are increasing the instabilities…

Is ‘Polycrisis’ the Right Word for Our Times?

Asher Miller

Asher Miller of the Post-Carbon Institute critiques Dan Drezner’s dismissal of the term polycrisis and his worry that it promotes fatalism and inaction. Miller counterargues that “only in understanding the…

A New World Disorder? Navigating a Polycrisis: Global Trends 2023

IPSOS

This market research report surveys public opinion on many current topics including technology, climate change, globalization, inequality, political splintering, and more. It frames its findings in the context of the…

Three Ways to Read the ‘Deglobalisation’ Debate

Adam Tooze

Adam Tooze argues that there are three ways to reconcile “the feverish talk of deglobalisation and decoupling” with statistics that “show an inertial continuity in trade and investment patterns: business…

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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