Publication

Understanding Collapse and Recovery: Working Group Summary

2025

Abstract

Nations and societies experience numerous natural and manmade stressors that can lead to potential system-wide collapse. This chapter investigates the processes and mechanisms by which societies experience collapse and the resources and capabilities that are needed to facilitate successful recovery. The ability of a society to display resilience, which is the ability to prepare for, absorb, recover from, and adapt to stressors, is important for its ability to avoid collapse.

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2025

Abstract

Official source

Related concepts (7)

Societal collapse

Societal collapse (also known as civilizational collapse) is the fall of a complex human society characterized by the loss of cultural identity and of social complexity as an adaptive system, the downfall of government, and the rise of violence. Possible causes of a societal collapse include natural catastrophe, war, pestilence, famine, economic collapse, population decline or overshoot, mass migration, and sabotage by rival civilizations. A collapsed society may revert to a more primitive state, be absorbed into a stronger society, or completely disappear.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (titled Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive for the British edition) is a 2005 book by academic and popular science author Jared Diamond, in which the author first defines collapse: "a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time.

Global catastrophic risk

A global catastrophic risk or a doomsday scenario is a hypothetical future event that could damage human well-being on a global scale, even endangering or destroying modern civilization. An event that could cause human extinction or permanently and drastically curtail humanity's potential is known as an "existential risk." Over the last two decades, a number of academic and non-profit organizations have been established to research global catastrophic and existential risks, formulate potential mitigation measures and either advocate for or implement these measures.