How do specific actors contribute to a multi-level resilience in times of polycrisis? Identifying a research gap

The early twenty-first century is increasingly characterized by a convergence of crises that chal-lenge traditional approaches to governance, risk management, and societal organization. Rather than occurring in isolation, crises today tend to unfold simultaneously, interact across domains, and reinforce one another in complex and often unpredictable ways. This phenomenon, widely conceptualized as polycrisis, has become a central concern in both academic debates and policy discussions (Zaki et al., 2024). The concept can be traced to the work of Edgar Morin and Anne Brigitte Kern (1999), who emphasized the interconnected nature of contemporary crises. Their approach is grounded in Morin’s theory of complexity, which highlights how social, political, economic, environmental, and technological challenges interact and reinforce one another. From climate change and global pandemics to geopolitical conflicts, the contemporary crisis landscape is marked by those deep interdependencies. As a result, the cumulative effects of these overlapping disruptions frequently exceed the sum of their individual impacts, generating systemic risks that are difficult to anticipate, manage, or contain (Helleiner, 2024; Kelecha, 2026; Tooze, 2022).