Created by Yuen Yuen Ang in 2024, polytunity is both a counter-narrative and constructive alternative to the reigning buzzword polycrisis. Instead of reacting to today’s convergence of crises and disruptions with fear and paralysis, polytunity reframes this moment as a generational opportunity for deep transformation of global institutions and thought.

Polytunity is not just a new word. It signals a reflexive and transformative agenda at a time when the world is shifting toward multipolarity and ever more complexity. Such a tectonic rupture requires, first and foremost, that we diversify the curation of voices, reprogram the way we think and our visions for more inclusive and just societies. Nor is polytunity vague optimism or “crisis-in-opportunity” vibes. It is grounded in a rigorous empirical foundation.

To seize the polytunity, Ang offers her paradigm as an intellectual foundation: AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral) Political Economy. Adaptive = replace machine-thinking with systems-thinking. Inclusive = Value diverse local solutions and development pathways. Moral = Being mindful about how power and positionality shapes ideas.

Though formally named in 2024, Ang has practiced AIM throughout her award-winning scholarship, teaching, and public engagement in the past decades, and she continues to expand the paradigm through a variety of new projects. In short, Ang’s intellectual evolution follows a genealogical sequence, like a seed growing into a sprout, then a tree, and eventually into a grove.

Polytunity sets the stage for AIM, asking: Why do we urgently need a new paradigm now?

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AIM is that paradigm - offering new ways of thinking for a disrupted, multipolar world.

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Adaptive + Inclusive + Moral form the pillars of AIM, grounding both its analytic and normative foundations.

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Ang’s past work demonstrates AIM in action, showing how its principles translate into fresh research questions, methods, data collection, findings, and insights.

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Building on that demonstration, The Polytunity Project, a faculty lab Ang directs at JHU, facilitates a global movement: How can changemakers seize the polytunity and apply AIM across regions and sectors, in creative and unexpected ways?

In the following pages, you’re invited to enter the portal of Polytunity, a world of possibilities amid disruptions.