The Crisis in Crisis
Joseph Masco
In this essay, Joseph Masco argues that the word “crisis” has become a counterrevolutionary term in American media and politics, used to stabilize existing conditions rather than address problems of…
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.
Further Explication of the Mega-Crisis Concept and Feasible Responses
Victor Yew-Cho Yen and Charles T. Salmon
The article analyzes the concept of mega-crisis in comparison with crisis. It defines the mega-crisis as a “set of interacting crises that is severe in impact, complex in nature and…
Speech by President Jean-Claude Juncker at the Annual General Meeting of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises
Jean-Claude Juncker
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker uses the term polycrisis to describe Europe’s governance challenges amidst the Greek debt crisis, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the surge of Syrian refugees into Europe,…
Systemic Risks: The New Kid on the Block
Ortwin Renn
Ortwin Renn proposes that societies are good at conventional risk management, which focusses on discrete events like a fire or car accident, but increasingly challenged by systemic risks where a…
The Emergence of Global Systemic Risk
Miguel A. Centeno, Manish Nag, Thayer S. Patterson, Andrew Shaver, and A. Jason Windawi
The authors argue that the world constitutes a tightly coupled, global complex system that endogenously generates systemic risks and vulnerabilities as it grows more complex. After discussing complexity, risk, and…
The Trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration
Will Steffen, Wendy Broadgate, Lisa Deutsch, Owen Gaffney, and Cornelia Ludwig
The authors update the ‘Great Acceleration’ graphs of socio-economic and Earth System trends from 1750 to 2010, differentiating between wealthy, emerging, and other countries. Earth system indicators continue their long-term…
Synchronous Failure: The Emerging Causal Architecture of Global Crisis
Thomas Homer-Dixon, Brian Walker, Reinette Biggs, Anne-Sophie Crépin, Carl Folke, Eric F. Lambin, Garry D. Peterson, Johan Rockström, Marten Scheffer, Will Steffen, and Max Troell
The authors argue we are increasingly witnessing a new form global crises they characterize as “synchronous failure.” This form of crisis “is more biophysical in origin, more inter-systemic in manifestation,…
A Decade of Adaptive Governance Scholarship: Synthesis and Future Directions
Brian C. Chaffin, Hannah Gosnell, and Barbara A. Cosens
The authors survey the development of the adaptive governance concept, which they define as “A range of interactions between actors, networks, organizations, and institutions emerging in pursuit of a desired…
Globally Networked Risks and How to Respond
Dirk Helbing
Dirk Helbing demonstrates that “Systemic failures and extreme events are consequences of the highly interconnected systems and networked risks humans have created. When networks are interdependent this makes them even…
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.
Staving Off the Coming Global Collapse
William E. Rees
William E. Rees asserts that humanity is heading to a critical ecological situation that diminishes the prospect of continued civilized existence, and considers why, despite the magnitude of the threat,…