Taking as its point of departure the ongoing health crisis, the project "Multiple Crises. Covid-19 and the Entanglements of Public Health, Security and Ecology in Europe" explores the entanglement and interaction between different crisis phenomena. The Covid-19 pandemic acts as a magnifying glass for these phenomena, which are perceived as “existential crises”. Based on the three major subject areas of Public Health, Security, and Ecology, the project identifies and analyses specific interdependencies between these phenomena. It focuses on three levels of investigation: crisis perception in European societies (1), crisis analyses of scientific experts (2), and crisis actions of political institutions and decision-makers (3).

From an interdisciplinary perspective that combines approaches from the social sciences and the humanities, and in the spirit of a history of contemporary problems, the project investigates creative adaptation practices, coping strategies and policies of societies and institutions on the local, national, and European level in a global context. Engaging in Franco-German dialogue, it aims to develop critical humanities and social sciences perspectives on current crises and threats, and to examine their historical and societal dynamics in Europe. Researching the interaction of multiple crises should thus enable a better understanding of the perception, analysis, and treatment of complex and entangled crisis phenomena in contemporary Europe.

Lead researcher: Judith Nora Hardt (CMB), Gabriel Bartl (CMB)  
Funding agency: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF)
Duration: 03.2021 – 02.2024