Learning resource

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 sustainability or ecosystem health. Drawing on systems science and the service ecosystems perspective, they present a framework for systemic management that prioritizes holistic, integrative, adaptive,

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 assessment, governance, and communication. The authors argue that traditional, siloed approaches are no longer adequate in a world marked by cascading, interconnected crises. Drawing on

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 longer sufficient to confront the cascading and compounding nature of today’s interconnected challenges. She emphasizes the need for integrated, transdisciplinary methods that draw on diverse

Malte Brosig examines the conditions under which crises may transmit across systems, presenting a conceptual analysis that draws on a diverse set of theoretical frameworks, including neofunctionalism, rational choice, complexity theory, assemblage theory, and epidemiology. He argues that crisis transmission is not automatic but may be shaped by factors such as stressor similarity, functional interdependencies,