Research by Program Area
Technical Papers
Positive Pathways report
Michael Lawrence and Megan Shipman
This report explores how polycrisis analysis can help us navigate through polycrisis and pursue "positive pathways" to better futures.
Casual Loop Diagrams handbook
This handbook explains how to read and draw a causal loop diagrams (CLD) — a systems mapping technique that helps us to think through our mental model of a system, increase our understanding of a system, and communicate our knowledge to others.
Introduction to Polycrisis Analysis
Michael Lawrence, Megan Shipman, and Thomas Homer-Dixon
This guide presents the Cascade Institute’s framework for polycrisis analysis. It introduces an integrated set of concepts that clarifies interactions between global systemic crises and the potential outcomes of those interactions. It is intended to help governments, firms, and communities see through the fog currently surrounding global risks more effectively, so they can better anticipate and respond to emerging threats.
Global polycrisis: The causal mechanisms of crisis entanglement
Michael Lawrence, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Scott Janzwood, Johan Rockström, Ortwin Renn, and Jonathan F. Donges
This peer-reviewed paper, published in Cambridge University Press's Global Sustainability journal, defines the concept of global polycrisis and provides a theoretical framework to explain causal mechanisms currently entangling many of the world’s crises.
What is a global polycrisis?
Michael Lawrence, Scott Janzwood, and Thomas Homer-Dixon
September 16, 2022 • This discussion paper argues that the concept of “global polycrisis” provides a useful framework with which to understand and address major problems afflicting humanity today.
