Citation

Chmutina K, von Meding J, Williams DA, Vickery J, Purdum C. Disasters 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/disa.12568

PMID

36354187

Abstract

Vulnerability is a shared basic condition but also a condition of potential. In the context of disasters and crises, the concept of vulnerability is often used to portray individuals and groups as 'weak', 'threatened' and 'in need of help'. But occasionally a shift occurs and the 'threatened' - and therefore usually pitied - become those who are feared and hated, i.e., a 'threat'. We explore 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. We demonstrate that too often the freedoms and opportunities prescribed by the neoliberal state are impossible to actualise when 'normality' and therefore '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 to truly reduce vulnerabilisation by focusing on justice.

Language: en