Decline and Fall, Growth and Spread, or Resilience? Approaches to Studying How and Why Societies Change

• Published in: Journal of world history Vol. 34; no. 4; pp. 497 - 525
• Main Author: Hoyer, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Honolulu University of Hawai'i Press 01.12.2023; University of Hawaii Press
• Subjects: Climate change; Disasters; Evaluation; Fukuyama, Francis; Inequality; Libraries; Pandemics; Political scientists; Population growth; Precedents; Regression (Civilization); Resilience; Roman civilization; Sectarian violence; Social change; Social structure; Society; Works; United States
• DOI: 10.1353/jwh.2023.a912768
• ISSN: 1045-6007; 1527-8050

Academic and popular libraries are filled with works seeking to uncover why some past societies collapsed, or to explain why others flourished, or why a few prove resilient against the major shocks and disasters that have doomed so many others. While we have learned much from this diverse set of scholarship, there are still many questions about how these different aspects of societal dynamics relate to each other and we lack clear consensus on the best approach(es) to provide answers. Further, historical precedents of collapse, growth, and resilience are being sought to help craft effective responses to the forces that threaten our contemporary world, from climate change to the risk of global pandemics to rising inequality and sectarian conflict. This essay reviews recent and prominent approaches to these topics and provides some thought on how broad, holistic approaches to studying societal dynamics can shed light on these pressing issues.