LFU:online

Curr. 2021 § 5 (1) 15: This module serves to gain in-depth knowledge in selected subject areas of sociology. The students specialise in one or more subject(s) and acquire in-depth knowledge in them.

In recent years, the concept of vulnerability has become a buzzword in social and political discourse. The concept is used in many areas of society, such as social and health policy, climate change, migration and refugees, or human rights. Although the term vulnerability has gained enormous popularity in recent years, it is also a contested and controversial concept. This course aims to examine concepts and discourses of vulnerability in various areas and analyze its dimensions of meaning and implications. Above all, the term will be examined critically to determine what overlaps or differences in meaning exist with terms such as inequality and discrimination. The course therefore addresses the following questions:

What meanings are attributed to the concept/term of vulnerability and what impact does it have in social and academic discourse, e.g., in the context of climate change, migration, digitalization, pandemics, or the welfare state?

How is vulnerability differing from, contradicting or overlapping with the concepts of inequality and discrimination? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the concept of vulnerability in comparison to the concepts of inequality and discrimination?

How do societal attributions of “vulnerability” arise and how do they affect political decisions, social practices, and realities of life? How should this be assessed from a perspective of equality and non-discrimination?

Introductions to the respective topics by the lecturer, reading of and processing academic literature, short contributions by the students, group and individual assignments, short films, discussion of the course literature.

Completion of readings and assignments, regular active participation, timely submission of assignments, presentation, attendance.

Kate Brown, ‘“Vulnerability”: Handle with Care’, Ethics and Social Welfare 5, no. 3 (September 2011): 313–21, https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2011.597165.

Alyson Cole, ‘All of Us Are Vulnerable, But Some Are More Vulnerable than Others: The Political Ambiguity of Vulnerability Studies, an Ambivalent Critique’, Critical Horizons 17, no. 2 (3 May 2016), https://doi.org/10.1080/14409917.2016.1153896.

Martha Albertson Fineman, ‘The Vulnerable Subject: Anchoring Equality in the Human Condition’, Yale Journal of Law & Feminism 20, no. 1 (2008).

Paul Kadetz and Nancy B. Mock, ‘Problematizing Vulnerability. Unpacking Gender, Intersectionality, and the Normative Disaster Paradigm’, in Creating Katrina, Rebuilding Resilience: Lessons from New Orleans on Vulnerability and Resiliency, ed. Michael John Zakour, Nancy B. Mock, and Paul Kadetz (Oxford, United Kingdom ; Cambridge, MA: BH, Butterworth-Heinemann, an imprint of Elsevier, 2018).

Jane Freedman, ‘The Uses and Abuses of “Vulnerability” in EU Asylum and Refugee Protection: Protecting Women or Reducing Autonomy?’, Papeles Del CEIC 2019, no. 1 (20 March 2019).

Monika Mayrhofer (2025) ‘The concept of vulnerability and its relation to the concepts of inequality and discrimination: A Review Article’, International Journal of Human Rights, 1-30, https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2025.2488938

Monika Mayrhofer, Margit Ammer and Katrin Wladasch (2025) The concept of vulnerability and its relation to equality in the context of human rights: Cases from climate change-mobility, anti-discrimination and asylum, Frontiers in Sociology of Law, Vol. 10, https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1522402 

Monika Mayrhofer (2024) Framing UN Human Rights Discourses on Climate Change: The Concept of Vulnerability and its Relation to the Concepts of Inequality and Discrimination, International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique, 37(1), 91-117, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-023-10092-1

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