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.

Decision-Making in the Polycrisis Era

Daniel Wagner and Ben Cattaneo

The authors explore the challenges decision makers face to address the impact of polycrisis on essential operational functions such as risk management and strategic planning. They offer insights and tools…

A Dynamic Network Model of Societal Complexity and Resilience Inspired by Tainter’s Theory of Collapse

Florian Schunck, Marc Wiedermann, Jobst Heitzig and Jonathan F. Donges

This study examines the dynamics of societal collapse based on Joseph Tainter’s theory of the “collapse of complex societies.” It explores how rising societal complexity influences productivity and the likelihood…

Polycrisis in the Anthropocene: An Invitation to Contributions and Debates

Michael Lawrence

This commentary introduces “Polycrisis in the Anthropocene,” a special issue of Global Sustainability journal. It elaborates upon three major contributions of the issue’s lead article, “Global Polycrisis: The Causal Mechanisms…

Global Polycrisis: The Causal Mechanisms of Crisis Entanglement

Michael Lawrence, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Scott Janzwood, Johan Rockström, Ortwin Renn, and Jonathan F. Donges

The authors translate polycrisis from a loose concept into a research agenda by providing the concept with a substantive definition, highlighting its value-added in comparison to related concepts, and developing…

Global Risks Report 2024

World Economic Forum

This 19th edition of the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risk Report is based on a risk perception survey conducted with nearly 1500 experts from academia, government, business, and civil…

World Migration Report 2024

Marie McAuliffe and Linda Adhiambo Oucho (eds.)

The World Migration Report 2024 provides updated global and regional migration statistics and offers in-depth analysis of the complex and interconnected drivers of migration. A central focus of the report…

A Year in Crises

Tim Sahay

Tim Sahay surveys the many crises covered in The Polycrisis newsletter over the last year and identifies four key shifts: northern countries are increasingly concerned with their own economic resilience…

The Terrible Twenties? The Assholocene? What to Call Our Chaotic Era

Kyle Chayka

Kyle Chayka considers different possible labels for “our chaotic historical moment, a term that we can use when we want to evoke the panicky incoherence of our lives of late.”…

You Say You Want a Revolution: Dreaming of New Futures in the Polycrisis

James Gustave Speth

James Gustave Speth argues that the polycrisis has undermined earlier hopes for steady, gradual, progressive change, but is also stimulating new and unconventional visions for transformative change that should not…

GAR Special Report 2023: Mapping Resilience for the Sustainable Development Goals

Jenty Kirsch-Wood, Angelika Planitz and Matthew Brubacher

This report explores the critical role of resilience in achieving sustainable development within the context of an increasingly complex set of threats resulting from the deepening climate crisis and other…

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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