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.

Systemic Management Practices—Enabling Local Governments to Adapt in Response to Complexity

Manuel Riemer, Randy Sa’d, Tim Posselt, Pourya Salehi, David Corbett, Peter Jones, Antony Upward, Exmond DeCruz, Bill Baue, Asad Asadzadeh, Simone Sandholz and Theo Kötter

The authors explore the impact of accelerating change and increasingly complex global and local challenges on the city as a complex socio-ecological service ecosystem (SES) and its capacity to ensure…

Generative AI as intellectual augmentation for the polycrisis/metacrisis

Simon Buckingham Shum

In this webinar, Simon Buckingham Shum explores how generative AI intersects with the escalating global polycrisis, discussing how AI is both part of the problem and potentially part of the…

Polycrisis in Agrifood Systems: Climate-Conflict Interactions and Labor Dynamics for Women and Youth in 21 African Countries

Wolfgang Stojetz, Carlo Azzarri, Erdgin Mane and Tilman Brück

This paper examines how armed conflict and climate change jointly affect individual labour intensity in 21 African countries. Using labour force surveys alongside climate and conflict event data, the study…

Subjective-Probability Forecasts of Existential Risk: Initial Results from a Hybrid Persuasion-Forecasting Tournament

Ezra Karger, Josh Rosenberg, Zachary Jacobs, Molly Hickman and Phillip E. Tetlock.

This article presents a multi-stage forecasting tournament designed to evaluate how experts and generalist superforecasters assess short- and long-term existential risks to humanity, with a focus on artificial intelligence. The…

Polycrisis and Systemic Risk: Assessment, Governance, and Communication

Huan Liu and Ortwin Renn

In this article Huan Liu and Ortwin Renn examine the concepts of polycrisis and systemic risk. They outline key commonalities and differences and develop a joint understanding to inform risk…

Critical Responses to Global Systemic Risk in an Era of Polycrisis

Ruth Richardson

In this paper, Ruth Richardson argues that the global polycrisis demands a transformative shift in how systemic risks are assessed and addressed. Traditional, siloed approaches to risk management are no…

Ten Principles for Transforming Economics in a Time of Global Crises

Jasper O. Kenter, Simone Martino, Sam J. Buckton, Sandra Waddock, Bina Agarwal, Annela Anger-Kraavi, Robert Costanza, Adam P. Hejnowicz, Peter Jones, Jordan O. Lafayette, Jane Kabubo-Mariara, Nibedita Mukherjee, Kate E. Pickett, Chris Riedy and Steve Waddell

The authors present a qualitative analysis of 238 sources spanning 38 alternative economic approaches and identify ten shared principles for transforming economics in response to the global polycrisis. These principles…

Polycrisis Patterns: Applying System Archetypes to Crisis Interactions

David Collste, Cristina I. Apetrei, Linda Booth Sweeney, Jessica Lynch Boucher, Jenson Chong-Leng Goh, Olivier Hamant, Christoph E. Mandl, Gillian S. Martin Mehers, Riichiro Oda and Bert J. M. de Vries

This paper illustrates the potential of systems thinking by applying system archetypes to advance the conceptual understanding of the polycrisis. It explores three archetypes adapted to the study of polycrises:…

Towards the Governance of Global Systemic Risk: Reforming the Summit of the Future

Nicholas G. Studzinski, Randolph Kent and David Korowicz

This paper examines the United Nations’ 2024 Summit of the Future and its Pact for the Future, suggesting that while the Pact addresses key global challenges, it does not fully…

Polycrisis in the Anthropocene – A Global Sustainability Webinar

Michael Lawrence, Pia-Johanna Schweizer, Michael J. Albert, Ashwin Seshadri, Alexandre Giguère, Rachel Ainsworth and Johan Rockström.

One year after the call for papers for the Polycrisis in the Anthropocene special issue, 13 articles have been published, with more contributions forthcoming. This webinar features five authors from…

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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