Why the Polycrisis can also be a Polytunity

Abstract

Motivation

The term “polycrisis” has become a buzzword of the 2020s. Elite responses are trapped in doom because they fail or decline to diagnose the root causes of crisis in the first place. Yuen Yuen Ang argues that the polycrisis is only paralyzing for those attached to the old, Western-centric order. For others, especially in the Global South, it presents what she coins as a polytunity—a generative and truly global moment to rethink the intellectual foundations of development.

Purpose

Ang coins the term polytunity to invert the gloomy, Western-centric framing of the polycrisis. She identifies its intellectual root as the industrial-colonial paradigm, inherited from past centuries of modernization, and highlights its distorting effects. Ang introduces an alternative paradigm: Adaptive, Inclusive, and Moral (AIM) political economy.

Approach and Methods

Drawing from her years of research on adaptive, coevolutionary development (Ang 2016, 2024), Ang critiques the industrial-colonial paradigm that underpins mainstream development. She contrasts “thinking in machine mode” with the realities of adaptive social systems, and the imposition of “one-size-fits-all” templates with the everyday practice of “using what you have” across the developing world. She illustrates with cases from China, Africa, and Indigenous communities.

Findings

AIM shifts development thinking and practices in three key directions: Adaptive: From machine-thinking to adaptive political economy. Inclusive and moral: From a colonial logic of assimilation to indigenous innovation. Ang also reframes the role of the state not as top-down planning, but as directed improvisation.

Policy Implications

The polycrisis appears doomed only when viewed through the lens of Western decline. By contrast, polytunity calls attention to openings for institutional and intellectual transformation. Ang's AIM political economy offers both new research and policy agendas—particularly for actors who are not beholden to the legacy of domination but aspire to build a more just future.