Learning resource

Beyond Survival: Sustaining Human Agency in Challenging Times – Graham Leicester

In this podcast, Katherine Fulton, Graham Leicester, and Commonweal’s executive director Oren Slozberg explore how individuals, communities, and institutions can cultivate a fully human response to the polycrisis. The conversation reflects on why framing the polycrisis in abstract or intellectual terms tends to produce resignation rather than agency, and argues instead for approaching it as […]

Beyond Survival: Sustaining Human Agency in Challenging Times – Graham Leicester Read More »

Beyond Climate: Sketching the Anatomy of our Polycrisis and Reflecting on Solutions

This article argues that climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequity form an interconnected polycrisis driven by shared underlying causes and mutually reinforcing dynamics. It shows how environmental degradation and social inequity interact across systems, with high-income populations contributing disproportionately to these crises while experiencing fewer of their impacts. The article emphasizes that addressing this

Beyond Climate: Sketching the Anatomy of our Polycrisis and Reflecting on Solutions Read More »

You Can’t Have a Revolution Without Revolution: Navigating Polycrisis and Political Change in Iran

This article examines the war involving Iran through the lens of polycrisis and revolutionary theory, arguing that externally driven attempts at regime change risk deepening interconnected crises rather than producing meaningful political transformation. The article situates the conflict within a broader regional and global polycrisis, highlighting how war, energy disruptions, food insecurity, economic instability, displacement,

You Can’t Have a Revolution Without Revolution: Navigating Polycrisis and Political Change in Iran Read More »

Both Adaptive and Transformative Capacities are Necessary to Navigate Global Polycrisis

The authors assess the adequacy of adaptive and transformative capacities for navigating the global polycrisis. Through a rapid assessment of their potential for addressing the 14 Anthropocene traps, they find that while 10 of 14 traps challenge 17 of 23 resilience capacities, 10 capacities hold general potential to prevent trap formation and progress, with transformative

Both Adaptive and Transformative Capacities are Necessary to Navigate Global Polycrisis Read More »

Dynamics of Polycrisis 2.0

This commentary reviews fifteen continuing dynamics of the polycrisis and examines how they have changed over the past year. It argues that global instability is increasingly driven by the interaction of multiple reinforcing crises, including proliferating armed conflicts, escalating geopolitical rivalry, the breakdown of international cooperation, rising inequality, democratic backsliding, and intensifying climate disruption. The

Dynamics of Polycrisis 2.0 Read More »

Collective Memory and Genetic Social Psychology: A Necessary Rediscovery in Times of Polycrisis

The author argues that prevailing approaches to collective memory are too descriptive to address the developmental dynamics shaping memory in a polycrisis era marked by authoritarian resurgence and democratic fragility. He advances Genetic Social Psychology as an interdisciplinary framework that explains how collective memory, understood as social representations, is transformed through relations of domination, submission,

Collective Memory and Genetic Social Psychology: A Necessary Rediscovery in Times of Polycrisis Read More »

Reflections by Thomas Homer-Dixon

In this interview, Dr.Thomas Homer-Dixon reflects on his intellectual journey from studying political science and human conflict to developing a broader framework for understanding interconnected global crises. He explains the concept of polycrisis as the synchronization of multiple, linked crises rather than a coincidence of separate shocks, suggesting that today’s converging disruptions may reflect deeper

Reflections by Thomas Homer-Dixon Read More »

Uncomfortable Questions in Unstable Times

In this episode, Nate Hagens introduces a new recurring segment, Uncomfortable Questions in Unstable Times, focused on examining foundational assumptions about growth, stability, and societal purpose. He explores what might change if societies shifted their primary objective from economic growth to systemic stability, and considers how such a reorientation could reshape political incentives, cultural norms,

Uncomfortable Questions in Unstable Times Read More »

Dissecting the Polycrisis, Charting the Conceptual Terrain of Enquiry

The author examines the concept of polycrisis by distinguishing between surface-level crises and deeper structural drivers, arguing that prevailing approaches remain overly descriptive and fail to account for underlying causes. Drawing on a historical materialist framework, the author conceptualizes polycrisis as the manifestation of four interconnected structural crises: global capitalism, global gender relations, global race

Dissecting the Polycrisis, Charting the Conceptual Terrain of Enquiry Read More »

Scroll to Top