Vulnerability in an Extra-Moral Sense (with Paraphrases of Nietzsche) (original) (raw)

Vulnerability: possible uses of a philosophical, legal, political and social concept

2016

The essay presents a discussion of vulnerability theory from a philosophical and a sociological perspective. The success of this new paradigm in the social sciences and even in the public discourse appears justified by the need to rethink the institutions and social ties of late modernity, also from a gender perspective. It is undoubtedly a fascinating prospect, but one that conceals numerous pitfalls. In particular, ideas of agency, conflict, emancipation and solidarity, which are closely connected with fundamental rights theory and the development of constitutionalism may lose importance. The vulnerability paradigm, rather than eclipsing the language of rights, could then be used to interpret these rights, to define them with increasing accuracy and reinforce their effectiveness. In particular, the bottom-up construction of an emancipatory notion of vulnerability may well lead to an auspicious update of the interpretation of the principles of dignity, equality and solidarity, prin...

On Vulnerability. A Philosophical Anthropology (Lexington, 2024).

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666945485/On-Vulnerability-A-Philosophical-Anthropology "All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher."

Vulnerability and resilience: a critical nexus

Not all forms of human fragility or vulnerability are unavoidable. Sometimes we knowingly and intentionally impose conditions of vulnerability on others; and sometimes we knowingly and intentionally enter into and assume conditions of vulnerability for ourselves (for example, when we decide to trust or forgive, enter into intimate relationships with others, become a parent, become a subject of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, and the like). In this article, I propose a presently overlooked basis on which one might evaluate whether the imposition or assumption of vulnerability is acceptable, and on which one might ground a significant class of vulnerability-related obligations. Distinct from existing accounts of the importance of promoting autonomy in conditions of vulnerability, this article offers a preliminary exploration of the nature, role, and importance of resilience promotion, its relationship to autonomy promotion, and its prospects for improving human wellbeing in autonomy inhibiting conditions.

The need for rethinking the concepts of vulnerability and risk from a holistic …

Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and …

Human development has led humankind to idealise the elements of its own habitat and environment and the possibilities of interaction between them. In spite of confused perceptions about the notion of vulnerability, this expression has helped clarify the concepts of risk and disaster. For a ...

The Double Force of Vulnerability

Environment and Society

This article reviews ethnographic literature of environmental justice (EJ). Both a social movement and scholarship, EJ is a crucial domain for examining the intersections of environment, well-being, and social power, and yet has largely been dominated by quantitative and legal analyses. A minority literature in comparison, ethnography attends to other valences of injustice and modes of inequality. Through this review, we argue that ethnographies of EJ forward our understanding of how environmental vulnerability is lived, as communities experience and confront toxic environments. Following a genealogy of EJ, we explore three prominent ethnographic thematics of EJ: the production of vulnerability through embodied toxicity; the ways that injustice becomes embedded in landscapes; and how processes like research collaborations and legal interventions become places of thinking and doing the work of justice. Finally, we identify emergent trends and challenges, suggesting future research di...