Social vulnerability
In its broadest sense, social vulnerability is one dimension of vulnerability to multiple stressors and shocks, including abuse, social exclusion and natural hazards. Social vulnerability refers to the inability of people, organizations, and societies to withstand adverse impacts from multiple stressors to which they are exposed. These impacts are due in part to characteristics inherent in social interactions, institutions, and systems of cultural values.
Because it is most apparent when calamity occurs, many studies of social vulnerability are found in risk management literature.
Definitions
"Vulnerability" derives from the Latin word vulnerare and describes the potential to be harmed physically and/or psychologically. Vulnerability is often understood as the counterpart of resilience, and is increasingly studied in linked social-ecological systems. The Yogyakarta Principles, one of the international human rights instruments use the term "vulnerability" as such potential to abuse or social exclusion.The concept of social vulnerability emerged most recently within the discourse on natural hazards and disasters. To date no one definition has been agreed upon. Similarly, multiple theories of social vulnerability exist. Most work conducted so far focuses on empirical observation and conceptual models. Thus, current social vulnerability research is a middle range theory and represents an attempt to understand the social conditions that transform a natural hazard into a social disaster. The concept emphasizes two central themes:
- Both the causes and the phenomenon of disasters are defined by social processes and structures. Thus it is not only a geo- or biophysical hazard, but rather the social context that is taken into account to understand “natural” disasters.
- Although different groups of a society may share a similar exposure to a natural hazard, the hazard has varying consequences for these groups, since they have diverging capacities and abilities to handle the impact of a hazard.
...essentially about the human ecology of endangerment...and is embedded in the social geography of settlements and lands uses, and the space of distribution of influence in communities and political organisation.
this is in contrast to the more socially focused view of Blaikie et al. who define vulnerability as the:
...set of characteristics of a group or individual in terms of their capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural hazard. It involves a combination of factors that determine the degree to which someone's life and livelihood is at risk by a discrete and identifiable event in nature or society.
History of the concept
In the 1970s the concept of vulnerability was introduced within the discourse on natural hazards and disaster by O´Keefe, Westgate and Wisner. In “taking the naturalness out of natural disasters” these authors insisted that socio-economic conditions are the causes for natural disasters. The work illustrated by means of empirical data that the occurrence of disasters increased over the last 50 years, paralleled by an increasing loss of life. The work also showed that the greatest losses of life concentrate in underdeveloped countries, where the authors concluded that vulnerability is increasing.Chambers put these empirical findings on a conceptual level and argued that vulnerability has an external and internal side: People are exposed to specific natural and social risk. At the same time people possess different capacities to deal with their exposure by means of various strategies of action. This argument was again refined by Blaikie, Cannon, Davis and Wisner, who went on to develop the Pressure and Release Model . Watts and Bohle argued similarly by formalizing the “social space of vulnerability”, which is constituted by exposure, capacity and potentiality.
Susan Cutter developed an integrative approach, which tries to consider both multiple geo- and biophysical hazards on the one hand as well as social vulnerabilities on the other hand. Recently, Oliver-Smith grasped the nature-culture dichotomy by focusing both on the cultural construction of the people-environment-relationship and on the material production of conditions that define the social vulnerability of people.
Research on social vulnerability to date has stemmed from a variety of fields in the natural and social sciences. Each field has defined the concept differently, manifest in a host of definitions and approaches. Yet some common threads run through most of the available work.
Within society
Although considerable research attention has examined components of biophysical vulnerability and the vulnerability of the built environment, we currently know the least about the social aspects of vulnerability. Socially created vulnerabilities are largely ignored, mainly due to the difficulty in quantifying them. Social vulnerability is created through the interaction of social forces and multiple stressors, and it is resolved through social means. While individuals within a socially vulnerable context may break through the "vicious cycle", social vulnerability itself can persist because of structural influences that reinforce vulnerability.
Social vulnerability is partially the product of social inequalities—those social factors that influence or shape the susceptibility of various groups to harm and that also govern their ability to respond. It is, however, important to note that social vulnerability is not registered by exposure to hazards alone but also resides in the sensitivity and resilience of the system to prepare, cope, and recover from such hazards. However, it is also important to note, that a focus limited to the stresses associated with a particular vulnerability analysis is also insufficient for understanding the impact on and responses of the affected system or its components. These issues are often underlined in attempts to model the concept.
Models
Two of the principal archetypal reduced-form models of social vulnerability are presented, which have informed vulnerability analysis: the Risk-Hazard model and the Pressure and Release model.Risk-Hazard (RH) Model
Pressure and Release (PAR) Model
Criticism
Some authors criticise the conceptualisation of social vulnerability for overemphasising the social, political and economical processes and structures that lead to vulnerable conditions. Inherent in such a view is the tendency to understand people as passive victims and to neglect the subjective and intersubjective interpretation and perception of disastrous events. Bankoff criticises the very basis of the concept, since in his view it is shaped by a knowledge system that was developed and formed within the academic environment of western countries and therefore inevitably represents values and principles of that culture. According to Bankoff the ultimate aim underlying this concept is to depict large parts of the world as dangerous and hostile to provide further justification for interference and intervention.Current and future research
Social vulnerability research has become a deeply interdisciplinary science, rooted in the modern realization that humans are the causal agents of disasters – i.e., disasters are never natural, but a consequence of human behavior. The desire to understand geographic, historic, and socio-economic characteristics of social vulnerability motivates much of the research being conducted around the world today.Two principal goals are currently driving the field of social vulnerability research:
- The design of models which explain vulnerability and the root causes which create it, and
- The development of indicators and indexes which attempt to map vulnerability over time and space.
Researchers have yet to develop reliable models capable of predicting future outcomes based upon existing theories and data. Designing and testing the validity of such models, particularly at the sub-national scale at which vulnerability reduction takes place, is expected to become a major component of social vulnerability research in the future.
An even greater aspiration in social vulnerability research is the search for one, broadly applicable theory, which can be applied systematically at a variety of scales, all over the world. Climate change scientists, building engineers, public health specialists, and many other related professions have already achieved major strides in reaching common approaches. Some social vulnerability scientists argue that it is time for them to do the same, and they are creating a variety of new forums in order to seek a consensus on common frameworks, standards, tools, and research priorities. Many academic, policy, and public/NGO organizations promote a globally applicable approach in social vulnerability science and policy.
Disasters often expose pre-existing societal inequalities that lead to disproportionate loss of property, injury, and death. Some disaster researchers argue that particular groups of people are placed disproportionately at-risk to hazards. Minorities, immigrants, women, children, the poor, as well as people with disabilities are among those have been identified as particularly vulnerable to the impacts of disaster.
Since 2005, the Spanish Red Cross has developed a set of indicators to measure the multi-dimensional aspects of social vulnerability. These indicators are generated through the statistical analysis of more than 500 thousand people who are suffering from economic strain and social vulnerability and have a personal record containing 220 variables at the Red Cross database. An Index on Social Vulnerability in Spain is produced annually, both for adults and for children.
Collective vulnerability
Collective vulnerability is a state in which the integrity and social fabric of a community is or was threatened through traumatic events or repeated collective violence. In addition, according to the collective vulnerability hypothesis, shared experience of vulnerability and the loss of shared normative references can lead to collective reactions aimed to reestablish the lost norms and trigger forms of collective resilience.This theory has been developed by social psychologists to study the support for human rights. It is rooted in the consideration that devastating collective events are sometimes followed by claims for measures that may prevent that similar event will happen again. For instance, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a direct consequence of World War II horrors. Psychological research by Willem Doise and colleagues shows indeed that after people have experienced a collective injustice, they are more likely to support the reinforcement of human rights. Populations who collectively endured systematic human rights violations are more critical of national authorities and less tolerant of rights violations. Some analyses performed by Dario Spini, Guy Elcheroth and Rachel Fasel on the Red Cross' “People on War” survey shows that when individuals have direct experience with the armed conflict are less keen to support humanitarian norms. However, in countries in which most of the social groups in conflict share a similar level of victimization, people express more the need for reestablishing protective social norms as the human rights, no matter the magnitude of the conflict.
Research opportunities and challenges
Research on social vulnerability is expanding rapidly to fill the research and action gaps in this field. This work can be characterized in three major groupings, including research, public awareness, and policy. The following issues have been identified as requiring further attention to understand and reduce social vulnerability :;Research
1. Foster a common understanding of social vulnerability – its definition, theories, and measurement approaches.
2. Aim for science that produces tangible and applied outcomes.
3. Advance tools and methodologies to reliably measure social vulnerability.
;Public awareness
4. Strive for better understanding of nonlinear relationships and interacting systems, and present this understanding coherently to maximize public understanding.
5. Disseminate and present results in a coherent manner for the use of lay audiences. Develop straight forward information and practical education tools.
6. Recognize the potential of the media as a bridging device between science and society.
;Policy
7. Involve local communities and stakeholders considered in vulnerability studies.
8. Strengthen people's ability to help themselves, including an voice in resource allocation decisions.
9. Create partnerships that allow stakeholders from local, national, and international levels to contribute their knowledge.
10. Generate individual and local trust and ownership of vulnerability reduction efforts.
Debate and ongoing discussion surround the causes and possible solutions to social vulnerability. In cooperation with scientists and policy experts worldwide, momentum is gathering around practice-oriented research on social vulnerability. In the future, links will be strengthened between ongoing policy and academic work to solidify the science, consolidate the research agenda, and fill knowledge gaps about causes of and solutions for social vulnerability.