The Polycrisis as a Structural Transition

The Polycrisis as a Structural Transition reframes the polycrisis not as a cluster of simultaneous global disruptions but as a transitional state in the evolution of governance architectures. The paper argues that the defining feature of the polycrisis is not the number of crises but the structural conditions—fragmentation, nonlinear propagation, and institutional latency—that allow shocks to interact and amplify one another. Drawing on systems theory, complexity science, and anticipatory governance research, the essay demonstrates that the polycrisis emerges when legacy governance assumptions no longer match the pace, scale, and interdependence of contemporary systems. Rather than treating the polycrisis as an anomaly, the paper positions it as the predictable turbulence produced when an aging governance architecture encounters conditions outside its design parameters.