From pity to fear

Security as a Mechanism for (Re)production of Vulnerability

Bibliographic Data

ID5145478
AuthorsKsenia Chmutina (0000-0001-5662-8954, Reader in Sustainable and Resilient Urbanism at the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering Loughborough University United Kingdom, corresponding author), Jason Von Meding (0000-0002-2040-9298, Associate Professor at the Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience University of Florida United States), D A Williams (0000-0003-1679-3669, PhD candidate at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning MIT United States), Jamie Vickery (0000-0003-2264-2613, Research Scientist at the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences University of Washington United States), Carlee Purdum (Research Assistant Professor at the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center Texas A&M University United States), J Carlee Purdum (0000-0002-9801-9513)
Year2023
Volume47
Issue3
Pages546-562
Publication date2023-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDisasters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0361-3666 • E-ISSN: 1467-7717
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/disa.12568
PMID36354187
OpenAlexW4308681124
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited57

Vulnerability is not only a shared basic condition, but also a condition of potential. In the context of disasters and crises, the concept of vulnerability is frequently used to portray individuals and groups as 'weak', 'threatened', and 'in need of help'. Occasionally, though, a shift occurs and the 'threatened'-and therefore usually the pitied-become those who are feared and hated, that is, they become a 'threat'. This paper explores how apparently incompatible discursive regimes of 'threatened' and 'threat' intertwine, merge, and feed upon each other, and how vulnerability can be and is consequently securitised. It demonstrates that too often the freedoms and opportunities prescribed by the neoliberal state are impossible to actualise when 'normality' and hence 'otherness' are also defined by the state, where people are first and foremost subjects of a global market. These considerations are critical if we are truly to reduce vulnerabilisation by focusing on justice

Computer security · Context (archaeology · Environmental ethics · Geography · Law and economics · Merge (version control · Sociology · Threatened species · Vulnerability (computing · Computer Science · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Global Security and Public Health · Peacebuilding and International Security · Ecology