Causal Loop Diagrams handbook
Michael Lawrence
In this handbook, Cascade Institute Polycrisis Fellow Michael Lawrence explains how to read and draw a causal loop diagrams (CLD)–a systems mapping technique that helps us to think through our…
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.
Introduction: Escaping the Politics Trap? EU Integration Pathways Beyond the Polycrisis
Francesco Nicoli and Jonathan Zeitlin
The authors argue that since 2016, the European Union (EU) has been in a state of ‘polycrisis,’ where interconnected challenges threaten its cohesion and legitimacy. They develop an analytical framework…
Governance in Complexity – Sustainability Governance Under Highly Uncertain and Complex Conditions
European Environment Agency
This report presents an alternative concept of governance in complexity as an approach to managing sustainability challenges. It outlines how traditional governance methods may be insufficient for addressing the systemic,…
Transformative Resilience: The Key to Governing Europe’s Sustainability Transitions in the Polycrisis
European Environment Agency
This report explores transformative resilience in the EU’s sustainability transitions within the polycrisis context. Using a conceptual framework of transformative resilience, it addresses the following questions: How can the EU…
The Disruption Nexus
Roman Krznaric
Roman Krznaric explores the conditions in which crises lead to transformative societal change. He finds that transformative responses are most common in conditions of war, disaster, revolution, and disruption. The…
Framework on Management of Emerging Critical Risks
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
This report presents a seven-step framework to help governments manage emerging critical risks in an increasingly interconnected global landscape, shaped by complex economic, social, and technological systems. It outlines processes…
Libraries in Response Session 103: “Polycrisis R Us!”
Libraries in Response
Libraries in Response, produced by the Gigabit Libraries Network, is a webinar series focusing on how libraries are responding to health, social, economic, political, and climate crises. In this episode,…
Governance for Earth System Tipping Points – A Research Agenda
Manjana Milkoreit, Emily Boyd, Sara M. Constantino, Vera Helene Hausner, Dag O. Hessen, Andreas Kääb, Duncan McLaren, Christina Nadeau, Karen O'Brien, Frans-Jan Parmentier, Ronny Rotbarth, Rolf Rødven, Désirée Treichler, Elana Wilson-Rowe and Yulia Yamineva
The authors propose a new interdisciplinary research agenda to address the challenges that earth system tipping points pose for global governance. They argue that current institutions and policy tools are…
SONAR 2024: New Emerging Risk Insights
Swiss Re Institute
The Swiss Re Institute, the research arm of Swiss Re Reinsurance, harnesses their risk knowledge in re/insurance to produce data driven research with partner organizations, shared via publications such as…
Local Organizing in a Polycrisis Era, American Politics, Healthy Democracy, Polycrisis
Jacob Bornstein and Mesa Sebree
In this four-part essay series, Jacob Bornstein and Mesa Sebree explore the concept and nature of the polycrisis. The series offers insight into topics such as how social change works…
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.