2022: the year of ‘permacrisis’
With the ongoing cost of living crisis, inflation, soaring food and energy prices, war in Europe, the ousting of two Prime Ministers within a matter of months, and the sudden death of HM the Queen, it is perhaps unsurprising that Collins Dictionary has awarded ‘permacrisis’ its ‘word of the year’ for 2022.
‘Permacrisis’ means “an extended period of instability and insecurity” and according to Collins, there has been a twenty-fold increase in its use in the last year alone. Collins added that it chose the word because “it sums up quite succinctly just how truly awful 2022 has been for so many people.” Yet one of the main reasons that 2022 has been so dreadful is that it has managed to accelerate the instability and insecurity built over recent years, brought about by a variety of issues ranging from Covid-19 to extreme weather events to Brexit.
The terms ‘mega-crisis’ and ‘poly-crisis’ are defined as multiple crises, over a range of areas, often with a global dimension, interacting with each other in ways which make the sum more complicated and intractable than the individual parts. ‘Permacrisis’ is a term that views the mega- or poly- crisis with a more subjective lens: it implies a more permanent state of crisis, accompanied by a very real sense of pessimism and dread, a feeling that there is no way out, a collapse of life as we know it.
Permacrisis has been described as embodying “a dizzying sense of lurching from one unprecedented event to another as we wonder bleakly what new horrors might be around the corner.” This sense of dread and impending doom is amplified “by the way in which we experience news today: constant, portable and heightened by engagement.” The unremitting catastrophising of the mainstream media, constantly amplified by social media, undoubtedly “darkens the mood.”
An age of permacrisis: the new normal
The world is entering an era of protracted turmoil. Rather than being the exception, a state of permacrisis is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Volatility, change, uncertainty and a prolonged sense of emergency have become the new normal and the environment will be challenging for businesses and people alike. Much as we many long for stability and predictability, there is no immediate end in sight to the various political, health, environmental and economic challenges that confront us. Many of us might be overwhelmed or exhausted by the permacrisis around us or fighting immediate fires every day. It would be easy to ignore the febrile environment around us, but that would be a mistake. We are now living in an age of permacrisis, which will require businesses and people to prepare for and adapt to a fragile and unpredictable environment, in which black and grey swan events will continue to appear and decisions will have to be taken quickly, often only on the basis of partial evidence. This state of affairs may require investment at many levels and reorganisation of existing structures, including new mechanisms and ways of working. The development of crisis contingency planning will be essential in helping organisations to tackle and respond to challenges when they arise. And in order to build their resilience in the new normal, organisations will need to learn how to become nimble, adaptable and fleet-of-foot.
A survey conducted in September by PR Week in partnership with Boston University found that more than 80% of communications professionals felt that “the ability to handle crises” has now become the most important skill in their toolkit. In an age of polycrisis and permacrisis, this should be no surprise. As my colleague Rod Cartwright observes “In an era of constant flux, organisations of all kinds have realised the extent to which the systematic management of reputational risk is simply business-critical.”
CIPR’s Crisis Communications Network was established to promote excellence and share best practice in crisis communications. We hold regular events and publish several blogs every month. You can find out more at www.ciprcrisiscommsnetwork.com
“For people around the world, the war [in Ukraine], together with the other crises, is threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake. No country or community will be left untouched by this.”
—António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
Image courtesy of ITN News