Societal Collapse

The tricky thing with collapse is that all the possible proximate causes can interact with and cause each other. In an earlier post we discussed a literature review by Joseph Tainter (Tainter, 2023). Tainter lists three main kinds of events that have been identified as a cause for collapse: 1)... [Read More]

One explanation for collapse is just bad luck. Sometimes all the factors that influence your society just point in the wrong direction and your empire crumbles without you being able to stop it. I want to use this post to explore if bad luck is a helpful framing for societal... [Read More]

This post primarily centers around a comprehensive 2022 case study conducted by Markus Stoffel and colleagues (Stoffel et al., 2022). This information dense paper is notable for its integration of a literature review and the combination of data from diverse sources and historical records. It underscores the far-reaching societal consequences... [Read More]

The first post of this living literature review gave a summary of the field of collapse studies. One thing that post makes clear is that we need better models of societal dynamics. This post explores the state of societal dynamics modeling. [Read More]

If you read about collapse in past societies, one thing that comes up almost always is famine. Why is famine so closely connected with societal collapse? This post will summarize the reasons for this strong connection. [Read More]