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.

Are we Entering an Era of Concatenated Global Crises?

Duan Biggs, Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs, Vasilis Dakos, Robert J. Scholes, and Michael Schoon

The authors argue that the world faces an increasing concatenation of crisis in time and space due to “the increased strength of global vs. local drivers of change, so that…

Globalization and Crisis

Barry K. Gills, ed.

This two part special issue of the journal Globalizations considers the multiple crises, dimensions, and interpretations of the global financial crisis.

Going South: Capitalist Crisis, Systemic Crisis, Civilisational Crisis

Barry K. Gills

Writing in the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis, Barry K. Gills argues that the world is actually in “a multidimensional set of simultaneous and interacting crises on a…

Critical Transitions in Nature and Society

Marten Scheffer

From shallow lakes that flip from clear to turbid water to major climate shifts, big shifts in social norms to the collapse of societies and ecosystems, Marten Scheffer shows that…

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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…

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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