Lawrence, Homer-Dixon, Janzwood, Rockström, Renn, Donges, "Global polycrisis: the causal mechanisms of crisis entanglement", Global Sustainability 7 (2024)

Disposition: stated. Provenance: article page read in the browser 2026-10-11 (abstract, "Are we in a global polycrisis?", criticism section).

What: the most worked-out academic version of an "age of crisis" frame. Why: it supplies the mechanism macro-view lacks. Fast triggers combine with slow stresses to push systems into disequilibrium, and crises entangle through three pathways: common stresses, domino effects and inter-systemic feedbacks.

• Names earlier polycrises: the 1970s oil shocks with stagflation, and 2008-09 with food and oil stress. It calls the current one unprecedented because of interconnection and homogenisation (world trade grew 12x, 1980-2022).
• Lists critics: the term obscures capitalist interests (Sial 2023); it is a buzzword without a research programme.
• Tension with James's frame: polycrisis treats hyper-connectivity as the medium crises travel through, while his frame lists deglobalisation as one of the crises. If the world really deglobalised, polycrisis contagion would weaken.

URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/global-polycrisis-the-causal-mechanisms-of-crisis-entanglement/06F0F8F3B993A221971151E3CB054B5E (read 2026-10-11)

Backlinks: macro-view, thread-transition, trail-2026-10-11-b