Polycrisis Resilience in Emerging Economies
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Polycrisis Resilience in Emerging Economies presents a century-scale framework for reducing systemic vulnerability across developing nations through economic convergence, technology diffusion, clean energy deployment, climate adaptation, human development, and institutional modernization. Developed by Hunter Hughes and advanced through the H Heuristics Polycrisis Resilience framework, the monograph argues that emerging economies represent the most consequential arena for reducing global risk in the twenty-first century. Rather than treating climate change, poverty, pollution, energy insecurity, health challenges, and governance weaknesses as discrete problems, the framework conceptualizes them as interconnected components of a broader survivability regime requiring coordinated, multi-sector responses.The study introduces six strategic pillars: Global Economic Convergence, Accelerated Technology Diffusion, Clean Energy Transition, Climate Adaptation, Human Development Foundations, and Institutional Governance Modernization. Together, these pillars are proposed as an integrated resilience architecture capable of compressing baseline vulnerabilities before crises occur. Central to the framework is the concept of Compound Resilience Dividends (CRDs), which posits that foundational investments such as clean electricity, digital public infrastructure, safe water systems, and primary healthcare simultaneously generate benefits across multiple domains, including health, education, economic productivity, food security, and fiscal stability. The monograph estimates that such interventions can produce resilience multipliers ranging from 2.35× to 3.25×, exceeding the returns of traditional reactive disaster-response approaches.Drawing on case studies from Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, the report examines how decentralized clean energy systems, digital public infrastructure, climate-resilient urban design, inclusive human development strategies, and institutional reforms can accelerate long-term development while reducing exposure to compounding global shocks. Looking toward the 2026-2100 horizon, the framework advances the concept of Planetary Capability Parity, a future condition in which all societies possess the baseline infrastructure, capabilities, and institutional capacity necessary to withstand systemic crises. The monograph concludes that proactive development should be understood not merely as an economic objective, but as a civilizational strategy for enhancing survivability, reducing human suffering, and fostering durable global resilience throughout the twenty-first century.
Source: Figshare
Author: Hunter Hughes
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225742160
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