The authors define a “tipping point” in terms of “a catastrophic bifurcation, where a minor trigger can invoke a self-propagating shift to a contrasting state.” Such “critical transitions” appear in nature and society but remain difficult to predict. The authors propose that complex systems with feature high connectivity and high homogeneity are particularly vulnerable to […]
Anticipating Critical Transitions Read More »
The authors argue that the world faces an increasing concatenation of crisis in time and space due to “the increased strength of global vs. local drivers of change, so that changes become increasingly synchronized”, and dense global connectivity, which enables crises to propagate and sometimes sees risk management efforts in one region to become crisis
Are we Entering an Era of Concatenated Global Crises? Read More »
This two part special issue of the journal Globalizations considers the multiple crises, dimensions, and interpretations of the global financial crisis.
Globalization and Crisis Read More »
Writing in the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis, Barry K. Gills argues that the world is actually in “a multidimensional set of simultaneous and interacting crises on a global scale” that he terms a “triple conjuncture.” It involves: A capitalist crisis of over-accumulation that includes the externalities of neoliberalism. A world system crisis
Going South: Capitalist Crisis, Systemic Crisis, Civilisational Crisis Read More »
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 resources and immense potential for growth but are now reaching the biophysical limits of the ecosphere. The authors thus advocate a deliberate shift from and
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 failure. He suggests that sustainability perspectives miss the fundamental reality of the global crisis.
The Perfect Storm: Catastrophic Collapse in the 21st Century Read More »
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 these core concepts. “Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the
Resilience, Adaptability and Transformability in Social-Ecological Systems Read More »
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 opposed to breakdowns in individual parts or components, and is evidenced by co-movements (correlations) among most or all parts” (p. 371). They explain how systemic
What Is Systemic Risk, and Do Bank Regulators Retard or Contribute to It? Read More »
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 characteristic ways. Over time, a system gets locked-in to a particular way of operating in which it accumulates immense wealth, expands connectivity to maximize efficiency,
Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems Read More »
