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, Drs. Michael Lawrence and Megan Shipman of the Cascade Institute discuss the polycrisis, explaining the origins and development of the term, why they think it’s […]
Libraries in Response Session 103: “Polycrisis R Us!” Read More »
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 behind it. Larchman provides a primer, in which she defines polycrisis, in part, as “a cluster of interconnected crises in which ‘the overall impact exceeds
The Polycrisis: Behind The Buzzword Read More »
In this video, Michael Hainsworth, host of the C.D. Howe Institute podcast, interviews Martin Wolf, Chief Economic Commentator at the Financial Times and host of the podcast “Saving Democratic Capitalism”, in advance of a talk that Wolf gave to the Institute. Hainsworth and Wolf discuss ongoing crises that factor into the ongoing Polycrisis—defined as “a
Prospects for the World Economy in the Polycrisis with Martin Wolf Read More »
This report by the WTW Research Network “introduces research and opinions that provide new perspectives to support risk management and resilience.” In particular, this report focuses on WTW’s work in geopolitics, topics such as supply chains, national competition, and emerging risks and their interconnectivity. WTW posits that the topics covered “highlight a need for an
WTW Research Network Risk & Resilience Review: Emerging Risks from Geopolitical Shifts Read More »
Global Tipping Points is a report, led by the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute and funded by the Bezos Earth Fund, that identifies negative and positive tipping points with regards to ongoing global crises. According to the report, the existence of negative tipping points shows that the threats posed by the current crises we
Global Tipping Points Report 2023 Read More »
Eric Helleiner defines polycrisis as “a cluster of distinct crises that interact in ways that they and/or their effects tend to reinforce each other” and argues that economic globalization is experiencing a polycrisis made up of five constituent crises: the deepening trade war between the United States and China; the move towards national self-sufficiency in
Economic Globalization’s Polycrisis Read More »
The authors examine domestic policymaking processes amidst polycrisis by tracing the Canadian government’s development of its Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) during the Covid-19 pandemic. They argue that the process embodied three key best practices for national-level policy design in a crisis—policy integration, learning, and agility—and show how these elements evade capture by the polycrisis
The authors translate polycrisis from a loose concept into a research agenda by providing the concept with a substantive definition, highlighting its value-added in comparison to related concepts, and developing a theoretical framework to explain the causal mechanisms currently entangling many of the world’s crises. In this framework, a global crisis arises when one or
Global Polycrisis: The Causal Mechanisms of Crisis Entanglement Read More »
This 19th edition of the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risk Report is based on a risk perception survey conducted with nearly 1500 experts from academia, government, business, and civil society. Chapter 1 focuses on three risks that have grown of increasing concern over the next two years: false information, interstate violent conflict, and economic
Global Risks Report 2024 Read More »
Tim Sahay surveys the many crises covered in The Polycrisis newsletter over the last year and identifies four key shifts: northern countries are increasingly concerned with their own economic resilience but have not reformed the international financial system, so the global south remains increasingly vulnerable and disadvantaged; the past two years have witnessed more violent
