Polycrisis
Term
Polycrisis
Idea level
Others / Descriptor (fear-naming)
Definition
Polycrisis describes the entanglement of multiple global crises (such as climate change, geopolitical conflict, rising inequality, and democratic erosion) that interact and produce overwhelming challenges. The term was first coined by Edgar Morin in the 1990s and popularized in contemporary policy discourse by Adam Tooze around 2023.
In Yuen Yuen Ang’s analysis, while polycrisis correctly names the convergence of crises, it does not diagnose their root causes or provide solutions. Instead, it functions as a fear-naming descriptor that is comforting to the Western-centered establishment, without challenging the underlying industrial-colonial system that produced these crises. Although framed as global, the term overwhelmingly reflects Eurocentric voices, experiences, and priorities.
Sources
Popularization:
Adam Tooze, Chartbook posts and World Economic Forum discourse (2022–2024)
Critical engagement and alternative framing:
Ang, YY. “Polytunity: The Future of Development,” The Ideas Letter, 4 Sep 2025. (open-access)
Ang, YY. “The Global Polytunity,” Project Syndicate, 29 Oct 2025. (open-access)
Genealogy
[Paradigm] Industrial–Colonial Paradigm: dominant worldview grounded in mechanical thinking and colonial logic
→ [Iteration] Crisis of the industrial–colonial paradigm in the 21st century, commonly labeled polycrisis
→ [Concept] Polytunity: counter-framing that interprets the same disruptions as a generational opening for transformation
→ [Paradigm] AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral) Political Economy — paradigm advanced by Yuen Yuen Ang to respond proactively to the polycrisis
Quotes
“Therapy, maybe. Diagnosis, no. Solutions, zero. Yet polycrisis has caught on worldwide. Why? Because it is comfortable. Polycrisis is a descriptor that the establishment can agree on without challenging itself.”
— Ang, Polytunity: The Future of Development (2025)
“For starters, we should recognize that the polycrisis is a Western-centric narrative masquerading as global.
Today’s overlapping crises can be traced back to the industrial-colonial paradigm that has prevailed since the Industrial Revolution, a worldview that defined progress as control: mechanical control over nature, and Western control over the rest of the world.
The industrial-colonial paradigm has expired in a hyper-complex, multipolar world. We need a new paradigm, which I call AIM: Adaptive, Inclusive, and Moral Political Economy.”
— Ang, The Global Polytunity (2025)