CRISIS OF REPRESENTATION. This phrase was coined by George Marcus and Michael Fischer to refer specifically to the uncertainty within the human sciences about adequate means of describing social reality.This crisis arises from the (noncontroversial) claim that no interpretive account can ever directly or completely capture lived experience.roadly conceived, the crisis is part of a more general set of ideas across the human sciences that challenge long-standing beliefs about the role of encompassing, generalizing (theoretical, methodological, and political) frameworks that guide empirical research within ...