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.

Positive Pathways report

Michael Lawrence and Megan Shipman

This Cascade Institute report explores how to translate an understanding of polycrises into actionable strategies to alleviate them. It suggests ways in which polycrisis analysis can build on existing approaches…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

A delusion of control: Loss of agency in modern complex systems

Miguel A. Centeno, Peter W. Callahan, Paul Larcey, and Thayer S. Patterson

This article argues that as “we increasingly rely on [globalized complex adaptive systems], we surrender more and more individual autonomy and agency, diminishing our ability to actually control our outcomes…

“The Whole World is in a Terrible State o’ Chassis”

Jeremy Brecher

This blog post is the first in a series of posts in which Jeremy Brecher advocates a Global Green New Deal as the remedy to polycrisis. He argues that the…

A Logic for the Future: International Relations in the Age of Turbulence

Stephen Heintz

Stephen Heintz explores the origins and development of the logic that shapes today’s international relations system, proposing a revised approach for the future. He applies this new logic to the…

Polycrisis in the Anthropocene as a Key Research Agenda for Geography: Ontological Delineation and the Shift to a Postdisciplinary Approach

René MATLOVIČ, Kvetoslava MATLOVIČOVÁ

Motivated by a desire to strengthen the social relevance of geography in the quest for global sustainability, Matlovic and Matlovicova discuss how the subdisciplines of geography and the rich heritage…

The Polycrisis: Behind The Buzzword

Clara Lachman

This article discusses the emergence of the word ‘polycrisis’ in 2023, noting its rise to prominence at the 53rd World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, and seeks to underscore the gravity…

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.

Scroll to Top