In the quest to define our current ‘unprecedented’ moment in time, few terms are as commonly accepted as Polycrisis. It denotes an entangled web of crises, as environmental, social, political and economic shocks collide, accelerate and mutate in relation to one another. The “grand challenges” of the environment and systemic inequality are increasingly inseparable from the pressures of a globalised economy and hyperpolitical democratic sphere. Using Polycrisis as a framework to make sense of our time's converging crises, and investigating how these crises accelerate and affect one another is essential to understand our time. Yet the term has increasingly become corporate and sterile as the overuse of the term has resigned it to a kind of shorthand for complexity, which entails the risk of it muddling, rather than clarifying, what we are up against.

For this reason, Tvergastein’s 21st issue invites a reconfiguration. We want to provide room for perspectives that can question the understanding of, and assumptions inherent in Polycrisis. First, in its assumptions of globality, we question whether we can understand Polycrisis not only in the international context, but in national, local, or personal terms? Further, can the uncertainty of Polycrisis create and necessitate opportunities for alternative future visions? And lastly, we ask whether the ‘unprecedented’ times the term denotes are truly without precedent?

These questions are sparks meant to inspire further reflection, and we invite contributions that engage with, expand upon, or operate outside of them. As an interdisciplinary journal, we welcome all approaches – academic and artistic, from the natural sciences to the humanities. We encourage essays, polemics, research articles, fiction, poetry, photo series, and visual art that engage with the theme. We look forward to reading your submissions, and to see how you make sense of "Polycrisis".