Abstract
This article elaborates a vulnerability concept from an ontological point of view. I criticise the normative perception of vulnerability by articulating a more neutral perception, in which vulnerabilities can also be seen as a possibility. To this end, this article is taking a closer look at four vulnerability aspects: sociality, culturality, corporality and liminality. This will be complemented by a fifth aspect, that of structurality, which I developed to take account of this further dimension of vulnerability. Finally, the article provides an exemplification of the outlined vulnerability concept with regard to migrants.
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Notes
- 1.
Within ecological research the concept of vulnerability is often used within climate research, as well as the architectural-technical environment—mainly to find preventive measures to cope with them (See Parry et all., 2007). In medicine, vulnerability refers to the sensitivity of nerves and vessels and also serves as a construct with which individual dispositions leading to diseases can be identified (this understanding also applies to psychology) (See Franke, 2012). The field of educational science is using the term vulnerability in different contexts to identify specific forms of risk in learning and teaching processes (Edelstein, 1996). The vulnerability concept within politics is mainly used in different security policy contexts regarding questions of risks to society and institutions (See Münkler and Wassermann, 2012). But the concept of vulnerability is increasingly influencing other threats, such as terrorism, international crime, war, etc.
- 2.
Within (Christian) theology the discourse on vulnerability is quite young. While for a long time theology’s focus was on the wounds suffered, it is now extended to vulnerability (See Keul, 2014). The unifying element of vulnerability is moving further into the centre of the debates and is becoming existential (See Culp, 2010).
- 3.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century there has been a systematic examination of vulnerability within philosophy. Here, vulnerability becomes especially important in the context of ethics (See Schofer, 2010). Moreover, vulnerability is a constant in the context of debating human rights, where it is seen as a basic condition that unites all people (See Turner, 2006). Furthermore, human vulnerability is considered in connection with existential dependence (See Butler, 2005).
- 4.
Vulnerability, as such, cannot be measured in this concept, whereas vulnerant factors can. The term is used in this context to express the hierarchisation that is taking place.
- 5.
According to the Geneva Convention on Refugees, a refugee is a person who is outside the country of origin of which he or she is a national or in which he or she has been living as a stateless person and is unable or, owing to fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group, is unable or, owing to fear of being persecuted, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country (See UNHCR, 2020).
- 6.
Similarly to the relationship between vulnerability and the vulnerant, there is no agency possible without a corresponding vulnerability (See: Safouane et al., 2020).
- 7.
Low formal education and low occupational status of parents as well as difficulties with the language of instruction are the greatest obstacles to school success for pupils with a migrant background. (See OECD, 2018).
- 8.
Othering is a permanent act of demarcation, categorisation and ultimately a discursive distinction between ‘us’ and ‘the others’. What is important is that this distinction is a practice rooted in social power and domination relations. In doing so, the focus is primarily on the supposed other. The supposed other is categorised and devalued as not belonging and deviant. Meanwhile the own is seen as natural, positive, and superior—this counter-image enhances the own and underpins its dominance. (See Said (1987) and Spivak (1985)).
- 9.
Ethical violence is understood as the exercise of violence based on the different ethical ideas of individuals. It expresses itself when the personal freedom of individuals is restricted by the ideas of others. Ethical violence can also express itself when a person is forced to self-reflect and must therefore consider whether his own ethics may be flawed in relation to another (See Butler, 2003, 2005).
- 10.
Among others, Samuel P. Huntington argued that future wars would be fought between cultures rather than between countries. In his article ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’ he puts forward the thesis, that people’s cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflicts around the world. (See Huntington, 1993).
- 11.
Biopolitics refers to an intersectional field between human biology and politics. It is a political wisdom taking into consideration the administration of life and a locality’s populations as its subject (See Foucault, 2008).
- 12.
If there are doubts about the age of a young refugee, a medical examination can be requested in Germany, in order to assess the individual. These examinations include, for example, an X-ray of the carpal bones. However, the medical age tests are controversial, to X-ray without medical indication is an intervention in the physical integrity, because even a medical examination can only provide an assessment (See Hoffmann, 2018).
- 13.
Galtung describes this with his concept of structural violence, for which he has been repeatedly criticised. By defining structural violence as the difference between potential and actual realisation, structural violence is necessarily always present and peace impossible (See Galtung, 1971).
- 14.
Mainly because women are often labelled as persons without agency and are therefore seen as ‘more vulnerable’ than men (See Krause, 2017). It becomes even more complicated when various aspects, such as traumatisation, are taken into account in this form of hierarchisation of human beings.
- 15.
The victim label, although eliciting compassion for victims, assigns to them a social role of passivity and forgiveness that they may increasingly find to be restraining (See Van Dijk, 2009).
- 16.
In reference to Erdheim, ‘identity’ here refers to a psychological structure that offers orientation. The own and the foreign are brought into a relation to each other in order to orientate oneself within social relationships (See Erdheim, 1992).
- 17.
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Göttsche, S. (2021). The Accumulation of Vulnerability Aspects in the Figure of the Migrant: A Theoretical Approach. In: Fromm, N., Jünemann, A., Safouane, H. (eds) Power in Vulnerability. Studien zur Migrations- und Integrationspolitik. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-34052-0_1
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