From labelling weakness to liberatory praxis
A new theory of vulnerability for disaster studies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15307705 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jason Von Meding (0000-0002-2040-9298, University of Florida, corresponding author), Ksenia Chmutina (0000-0001-5662-8954, Loughborough University) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 364-378 |
| Publication date | 2023-05-08 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Disaster Prevention and Management An International Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0965-3562 • E-ISSN: 1758-6100 |
| Publisher | Emerald Publishing Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1108/dpm-10-2022-0208 |
| OpenAlex | W4375862445 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 18 |
| References cited | 25 |
Purpose Vulnerability is a label and a concept that is widely used in disaster studies. To date the meaning has been quite limited and implied “weakness”, with criticisms arising periodically but not halting vulnerability's reproduction. In this paper, the authors offer a new theory of vulnerability for the field, suggesting that complicating the concept can create space for liberatory discourse and organising. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw from diverse understandings of vulnerability to generate new conceptual ground for disaster scholars. The authors explore the relationships between power and agency and autonomy and social hierarchy with regards to how vulnerability is considered within neoliberal democracies. The authors also outline ideological responses and the political actions that follow. Findings This exploration is underpinned by dissatisfaction with the way that vulnerability has thus far been theorised in disaster studies. Using the analytical framings provided, the authors hope that others will build on the idea that so-called “vulnerable” people, working in solidarity and using intersecting frameworks of anti-racism, anti-colonialism and anti-capitalism, can undermine the risk-creating norms of the neoliberal state. Originality/value The authors argue that the dominant framing of vulnerability in disaster studies – and usage of the vulnerability paradigm – provides political traction for neoliberal social projects, based on notions of humanitarianism. The authors make this claim as a challenge to the authors and the authors' peers to maintain reflexive scholarship and search for liberatory potential, not only in vulnerability but in other concepts that have become normative
Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Framing (construction · Political science · Politics · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Solidarity · Vulnerability (computing · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration · Disaster Management and Resilience · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law
Vulnerability Revisited
Bourdieu and early career researchers (ECRs) in disaster research
Deconstructing disaster risk creation discourses
Connecting everyday resistance to staying put in the context of climate change
The liberal limits to transformation in the Green Climate Fund
Vulnerable knowledge
Characterising climate change, colonisation, conflict & corruption as a vulnerabilising assemblage in the context of infectious disease in Haiti
“Respect existence or expect … resilience ?” epistemic reflexivity towards liberated disaster studies
Social Disability as Disaster
Resisting climate change vulnerability
Effing Awful!”
Why are you in disaster studies? Liberating future scholars from oppressive disaster science
A conceptual exploration of researcher positionality and critical reflexivity in disaster research through the lens of Bourdieu
Disasters “Through the looking glass”
Co-production revisited
The importance of belonging
Embodying and Resisting Urban Heat Injustice
Solidarity in disaster scholarship
A Dilemma of Language
Procedural Vulnerability and Its Effects on Equitable Post-Disaster Recovery in Low-Income Communities
Lost (and found?) in translation
Praxis in the Time of Empire
Vulnerability, Ignorance, and Oppression
Is my vulnerability so different from your’s? A call for compassionate climate change research
Benevolent discipline
Twenty-Five Years of Peace Research
Reframing resilience as resistance
Resilience
Testing Theories of American Politics
White innocence in the Black Mediterranean
From pity to fear
Remaking the world in our own image
Rendering the World Unsafe
Building back better' is neoliberal post-disaster reconstruction
Social Space and Symbolic Power
Is Vulnerability an Outdated Concept? After Subjects and Spaces
| Citations per year | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |