2022/03/23 by Sylvia Walby · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Disaster Management and Resilience
paper · pdf · doi:10.1332/204378921x16348228772103
openalex publication_date 2022/03/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The theory of crisis and society is advanced by developing a complex systems analysis and is applied to the COVID-19 pandemic. Five issues are identified, discussed and resolved: the definition of crisis; whether a crisis is treated as real or as a socially constructed narrative, or both; the underlying concept and theory of society and its alternative forms; and the different kinds of change in relationship between crisis and society (recuperation, intensification, transformation and catastrophe). This complex systems approach to crisis is applied to the COVID-19 pandemic, analysing the cascade of the crisis through institutional domains and the consequent changes to multiple regimes of inequality.