Polycrisis and Urban Crises: Key Concepts

These flashcards cover key concepts related to polycrisis, urban crises, and their interconnected nature.

What is a polycrisis?

A situation where multiple crises occur simultaneously and interact, amplifying their combined impacts.

Who popularised the concept of polycrisis?

Adam Tooze (2022).

How does a polycrisis differ from a single crisis?

Crises are interconnected and reinforce each other rather than occurring independently.

What is meant by 'permacrisis'?

A condition where crisis becomes ongoing and seemingly permanent.

Why do crises cascade in the modern world?

Because global systems are highly interconnected and interdependent.

How does globalisation contribute to polycrisis?

Shocks in one place quickly spread across economic, political, and environmental systems.

Name key crises involved in the polycrisis.

Climate change, pandemics, war, migration, housing crisis, economic instability, misinformation, and care crisis.

Why can’t these crises be addressed separately?

Because they interact and intensify one another.

Why are crises geographically uneven?

Because power, inequality, and location shape who is most affected.

At what scales does crisis operate?

From intimate (housing, care) to global (climate change, war).

What is meant by 'slow crisis' or 'slow violence'?

Long-term, gradual harm such as environmental degradation or infrastructure neglect.

Why are cities central to the polycrisis?

They concentrate population, infrastructure, inequality, and political power.

How does urban density intensify crisis impacts?

Through close proximity, shared infrastructure, and rapid transmission.

What does McFarlane mean by crisis being 'co-located' in cities?

Multiple social, political, economic, and ecological crises occur in the same urban spaces.

Why did COVID-19 spread rapidly through cities?

Because cities are globally connected and densely populated.

How were COVID impacts uneven within cities?

They varied by race, class, age, housing conditions, and type of work.

How did cities show resilience during COVID-19?

Through mutual aid, emergency services, and reconfigured public spaces.

What is urbicide?

The deliberate destruction of the built environment of cities.

Why is urbicide more than military damage?

It destroys the conditions of everyday urban life.

Name contemporary examples of urbicide.

Gaza and Ukraine.

Why is housing considered a core urban crisis?

Because shortages, unaffordability, and poor quality undermine wellbeing and security.

What impacts does the housing crisis have?

Homelessness, ill health, violence, and insecurity.

How does David Harvey view crisis?

As revealing contradictions within capitalism.

How can crisis be politically used by elites?

To justify austerity, restrict rights, and increase control.

What is 'crisis ordinariness' (Berlant)?

The idea that crisis becomes part of everyday life rather than an exceptional event.

Give examples of everyday crisis.

Housing insecurity, care shortages, structural inequality.

How do urban crises differ in the Global North?

Linked to deindustrialisation and austerity urbanism.

How do urban crises differ in the Global South?

Chronic infrastructure deficits and slow violence.

Why is crisis not only negative?

It can generate solidarity, resistance, and alternative futures.

What does McFarlane mean by a 'dialectic of crisis and possibility'?

Crises create both harm and opportunities for change.

Summarise cities and the polycrisis in one sentence.

Cities are central sites where multiple, interconnected crises converge, intensifying inequalities while also enabling resilience and collective action.