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This article examines the potential of Aid for Trade (AfT) as a tool for building resilience in developing countries and least developed countries amid the growing complexity of global polycrisis. Drawing on evidence from a range of AfT-supported initiatives, it highlights AfT’s capacity to enhance resilience at both macro and micro levels. However, the impact […]
The authors investigate the evolving nature of global crises by analyzing the temporal trends, geographic distribution, and co-occurrences of shocks across 175 countries from 1970 to 2019. Their findings reveal that shocks have become increasingly co-occurring until 2000, particularly involving conflict, climate, and technological disruptions, followed by regionally varied patterns of stabilization or decline. By
This paper presents a systematic mapping of integrative responses to the metacrisis, understood as a complex web of interconnected global crises spanning ecological, epistemic, ethical, and existential domains. Using a metatheoretical methodology, the authors identify and compare a broad range of emerging integrative approaches. They argue that frameworks such as metamodernism, integral theory, Game B,
Mapping an Ecology of Integrative Approaches to Addressing the Metacrisis Read More »
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
Polycrisis and Systemic Risk: Assessment, Governance, and Communication Read More »
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
Critical Responses to Global Systemic Risk in an Era of Polycrisis Read More »
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: Converging Constraints (based on the Limits to Growth archetype), Deepening Divides (from Success to the Successful), and Crisis Deferral (from Policy Resistance). By mapping feedback
Polycrisis Patterns: Applying System Archetypes to Crisis Interactions Read More »
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 account for the systemic nature of emerging risks such as polycrisis and planetary overshoot. The authors argue that existing governance models may be insufficient for
Towards the Governance of Global Systemic Risk: Reforming the Summit of the Future Read More »
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 the first set of papers in the Global Sustainability special issue “Polycrisis in the Anthropocene.” It explores a range of efforts to deepen our understanding
Polycrisis in the Anthropocene – A Global Sustainability Webinar Read More »
The authors explore the relationship between polycrisis and metacrisis, proposing a three-layer logic model to explain their connection. While polycrisis refers to the entanglement of interconnected global crises that intensify one another, metacrisis points to the foundational conditions that generate these crises. Just as symptoms indicate an underlying illness, polycrisis is seen as a manifestation
From Polycrisis to Metacrisis: a short introduction Read More »
