The Notion of Crisis: Conceptual Framework

Abstract

The familiar notion of crisis encompasses both personal and global crises and all possible shades between these two extremes. Although “crisis has become [one of] the most overworked words in the language” (Krystek 1987: 3), there is no clear understanding of its conceptual substance, which allows for a number of interpretations in different fields of thought. Before discussing the concept of crisis in the economic sense and under the perspective of the present research, the general framework for the concept has to be established.