Polycrisis Network announced as one of the new Challenge Theme Networks
The Horizons Institute has announced the Polycrisis Network as one of three new networks for 2024/25.
The Horizons Institute supports colleagues from across the University to develop and establish multiple Challenge Theme Networks each year. These networks collaborate with an interdisciplinary array of researchers and professional service colleagues, within and external to the University of Leeds, as well as policymakers, non-profit organisations, charities, businesses and the public to address pressing challenges.
This year the Polycrisis Network was one of three projects selected out of a pool of 36 application. Co-led by Dr Sebastien Nobert (POLIS), Dr Laura Considine (POLIS) and Dr Jez Coram (School of Media and Communication), the network aims to provide an interdisciplinary, critical and creative space to explore academic debates about the emergence, persistence, fabric, and real-world impacts of polycrisis.
From financial crises to the cost of living crisis, passing by the refugee crisis, the mental health crisis and indeed the climate crisis, our current era seems to be defined by an unrolling set of interconnected crises that defies any expectation of continuity and predictability. It is an era of polycrisis.
In this context, the idea of the Polycrisis Network is to consolidate a multidisciplinary research network between researchers across various Schools at the University of Leeds to engage with 3 objectives:
- Analysing the social life of crisis: the various processes involved in their materialisation, identification and effect;
- Documenting the dynamics of polycrisis: how they are mobilised through different scales of political interventions leading to disruption, duration and catastrophe;
- Exploring their embodiment, rhythms and the landscapes of polycrisis and their productive potentials – such as artistic creations, community of practices, ways to learn and act through them.
A steering committee strengthens the network. Members include Prof David Higgins (School of English), Prof Greg Radick (School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science), Dr Katy Wright (School of Sociology & Social Policy), Prof Paul Chatterton (School of Geography), Dr Karina Patrício Ferreira Lima (School of Law), Dr Caroline Chilton (School of Medicine), Dr Siobhan Hugh-Jones (School of Psychology), and Peter Sutoris (School of Earth and Environment).
For those interested in collaborating with any of the networks, the Horizons team can be contacted via email at horizons@leeds.ac.uk.
Find out about the other new Challenge Theme Networks here.
