A Systemic Approach to Polycrisis

Speaker: Michael Lawrence is a Polycrisis Research Fellow at the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University in Victoria, Canada. He has a background in conflict and security studies and specializes in applications of complex systems thinking in the social sciences. He is also one of the creators of polycrisis.org, a hub for polycrisis thinking.

Session outline: The global polycrisis entangles crises among multiple global systems. To respond effectively, we need to work across disciplinary silos using systems thinking. This presentation therefore introduces a distinctly systemic understanding of crisis as the product of slow-moving systemic stresses and fast-moving trigger events that push a system out of equilibrium in a way that creates human harms. This Stress-Trigger-Crisis model offers a helpful tool to track crisis interactions between global systems; but it also reveals a dilemma between responses intended to improve systemic resilience and those pursuing systemic transformation. By exploring these dynamics, this presentation advocates better systems thinking for an era of global polycrisis.

Dr Lawrence will be dialling in from British Columbia to join us for the session. Those who attend in person will also be able to benefit from networking with the Network's Co-leads and other attendees following his presentation.

This is a hybrid event, once registered you will be sent a meeting appointment with details for in-person attendance and the online joining link.

Find out more about the Polycrisis Network at the University of Leeds.

Learn more about the Cascade Institute’s Polycrisis Program

Polycrisis Network Seminar Series: A Systemic Approach to Polycrisis