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.

Research and Innovation to Thrive in the Poly-crisis Age

April 5, 2023

Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Kirsten Dunlop, Andrea Renda, Céline Charveriat, Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Darja Isaksson, Francisca Martins, Montserrat Mir Roca, Gitte Pedersen, Sylvia Schwaag Serger, Luc Soete, Špela Stres, Daria Gołębiowska-Tataj, Rainer Walz, Adrian Curaj and Ailin Huang

This report explores how Europe’s research and innovation (R&I) policy can make a decisive contribution to Europe’s ‘earthshot’—a future of well-being, peace, and sustainability. It calls for R&I to adapt…

Polycrisis: Prompts for an Emerging Worldview

April 1, 2023

David Henig and Daniel M. Knight

David Henig and Daniel M. Knight argue that anthropology has much to offer in the conceptualization and study of polycrisis, drawing on a disciplinary “toolkit that includes historicity, temporality, scalarity…

Navigating Polycrisis: Long-Run Socio-Cultural Factors Shape Response to Changing Climate

March 29, 2023

Daniel Hoyer, James S. Bennett, Jenny Reddish, Samantha Holder, Robert Howard, Majid Benam, Jill Levine, Francis Ludlow, Gary Feinman, and Peter Turchin

Societies throughout history have faced polycrises, but the outcomes range widely from collapse to positive adaptation. The authors have developed a Crisis Database of 150 past societal crises and find…

Why Integrated Assessment Models Alone are Insufficient to Navigate us through the Polycrisis

March 17, 2023

Konstantinos Koasidis, Alexandros Nikas and Haris Doukas

The authors discuss how Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) have limited capacity to navigate complex, interconnected global crises. They advocate for the integration of transdisciplinary approaches, including socio-technical transitions and diverse…

Understanding and governing global systemic crises in the 21st century: A complexity perspective

March 14, 2023

Didier Wernli, Lucas Böttcher, Flore Vanackere, Yuliya Kaspiarovich, Maria Masood and Nicolas Levrat

This article examines the nature, causes, mechanisms, and impact of global systemic crises and their implications for global policymaking and governance.

The Good News Hidden inside Today’s ‘Polycrisis’

March 9, 2023

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

March 9, 2023

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

March 7, 2023

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

February 28, 2023

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

February 18, 2023

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…

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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