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…
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.
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
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…
Places to Intervene in a System
Donella Meadows
Complex systems have leverage points, critical places where a change can profoundly alter system behaviors. Donella Meadows explores twelve leverage points in complex systems using real-world examples. “Leverage points are…
Homeland Earth: A Manifesto for the New Millenium
Edgar Morin and Anne Brigitte Kern
This book contains the earliest use of the term polycrisis. Edgar Morin and Anne Brigitte Kern argue that “one is at a loss to single out a number one problem…
The Collapse of Complex Societies
Joseph A. Tainter
After explaining the shortcomings of other accounts of societal collapses, Joseph Tainter presents his own, universal theory. Societies, he argues, are problem solving organizations that solve an unending stream of…
- « Previous
- 1
- …
- 34
- 35
- 36
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.