June 2013
Intermediate to advanced
468 pages
18h 32m
English
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22 The institutionalisation of vulnerable conditions and a case study from Germany
Introduction: positioning the argument
Vulnerability is no universal theory; it is a middle range theory attempting to integrate conceptual reasoning and empirical research with regard to specific social phenomena (e.g. the occurrence of devastating famines or floods). A meaningful application of the concept should be based on some kind of contextualisation both empirically as well as conceptually (cf. Kuhlicke et al., 2011). Against this background, the current application of the concept of vulnerability and the increasing emphasis on assessment procedures across the globe seems somewhat troubling. Particularly the strong relationship between ...