Dear Helen and group
I’m coming to this debate rather late and I have very much enjoyed reading the responses. I share many of the views that were expressed. To add to this debate, Angharad Beckett has written about ‘vulnerability’ as a state of being that affects everyone, not just particular groups. She asserts that ‘vulnerability’ is inherent to all humans. I also find comparisons to spatial analysts useful, as they conceptualise ‘vulnerability’ in much more general terms. For example, Bankoff et al (2004) do not see it as specific to particular sections of society but rather as a relationship that humans have with their social environments. Dunn et al. (2008) believe that ‘vulnerability’ can be both, inherent and situational, so it can be part of who we are, but also arise from social contexts. For instance, I may get very drunk tonight and that state of being makes me more ‘vulnerable’ in many respects.
I have recently completed a PhD study that deconstructed assumptions about inherent sexual ‘vulnerability’ of people with learning difficulties. I investigated how the assumption of ‘vulnerability’ leads to the social creation of actual ‘vulnerability’. For instance, someone may be seen as sexually ‘vulnerable’. We therefore protect them from consenting sexual encounters and information about sexuality. Yet, when that person is confronted with an actual unsought sexual approach they will have less knowledge to draw on to enable them understand what is happening.
To pick up the point about the term we should use instead, I think ‘vulnerability’ is not a helpful concept. As many others said, it is a label and it can mean anything to anyone, as there are so many different definitions. As I agree with Beckett that we are all ‘vulnerable’ I also do not find it helpful to single out a person and label them as such. It’s like labeling someone as ‘human’. What’s wrong with being ‘vulnerable’?
I think if potential risk to harm is identified, we should just name it as that: risk. ‘Vulnerability’ is an individualizing concept, almost a stigma attached to a person. Risk can be inherent to an individual. It can arise from socialization processes (such as lack of information on how best to protect oneself). It can arise from particular situations and wider social contexts. In other words: Risk allows us to see beyond individual ‘vulnerability’.
Identifying a solution to reduce risk is of cause a much more complex task than merely responding to individual ‘vulnerability’. We need to consider many more factors and many more solutions. If we say someone is sexually ‘vulnerable’ because they lack understanding of sex and sexuality our response is often to protect them. Paradoxically the act of protecting a person can increase situational risk (e.g. easily exploitable dependency relationships). If we move beyond an individualizing approach we can see that someone may be at risk because they have had little chance to learn about sex and sexuality. This can then be addressed by rectifying risk arising from socialization processes.
Best wishes, Andrea
References
Bankoff, G., Frerks, G., & Hilhorst, D. (2004). Mapping vulnerability: disasters, development and people. London: Earthscan.
Beckett, A. E. (2006). Citizenship and vulnerability: disability and issues of social and political engagement. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dunn, M. C., Clare, I. C. H., & Holland, A. J. (2008). To empower or to protect? Constructing the 'vulnerable adult' in English law and public policy. Legal Studies, 28(2), 234-253.
Hollomotz, A. (2009). Beyond 'Vulnerability': An Ecological Model Approach to Conceptualizing Risk of Sexual Violence against People with Learning Difficulties. Br J Soc Work, 39(1), 99-112.
Hollomotz, A. (forthcoming, March 2011). Learning difficulties and sexual vulnerability: A social approach. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Hollomotz, A. (forthcoming, late 2010). Vulnerable adults? The social creation of risk to sexual violence. In T. Sanders & R. Schuttleworth (Eds.), Disability and Sexuality. Leeds: The Disability Press.
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