35 TWO Vulnerabilities Vulnerable (adjective): exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally. (Oxford English Dictionary) This is the first of two chapters exploring the ways in which young people and professionals made sense of why sexual exploitation happens. In this chapter, attention is given to the wider context surrounding young people’s experiences and why or how it is that some young people are vulnerable to being sexually exploited while others are not. ‘Vulnerability’, ‘risk’ and ‘how young people
The notion of ‘vulnerability’ is now a prominent motif in social policy in the UK and beyond, with important implications for those deemed ‘vulnerable’. Yet the effects of recalibrating welfare and criminal justice processes on the basis of vulnerability often escape attention. This distinctive book draws together lived experiences of vulnerability with academic and practical applications of the concept, exploring the repercussions of a ‘vulnerability zeitgeist’ in UK policy and practice. Through a focus on the voices and perspectives of ‘vulnerable’ young people and the professionals who support them, it questions how far the rise of vulnerability serves the interests of disadvantaged citizens. Illuminating where support shades into more controlling practices, the book is important reading for scholars, students and policy-makers interested in exclusion, precariousness, deviance and youth.
125 SIX Vulnerable identities? Introduction While the concept of vulnerability has come to play a significant role in policies, practices and discourses related to disadvantage and social difficulty, how supposedly vulnerable people might understand, construct or respond to being classified in this way has rarely been given consideration. Resistance and receptiveness to ‘vulnerable identities’ (see McLaughlin, 2012) are little understood, with attention to the implications of vulnerability rationales tending to remain more focused at the level of
71 FOUR Vulnerability management Vulnerability is something that’s always there at the forefront; it’s always in your mind. (Manager, welfare service for ‘vulnerable’ children) ... the term ‘vulnerability’ is common parlance. (Senior manager, Youth Offending Service [YOS]) ... it seems like it’s the current buzz word. (Project worker, welfare service for ‘vulnerable’ children) Introduction Classifications of vulnerability now shape a range of interventions with people who are seen to require special care or behavioural regulation. Concerns about and
is central to debates about the value of understanding hardship in terms of ‘vulnerability’. Critical scholars have shown how ‘vulnerability’ operates in social policy to caste certain social groups – such as people with disabilities, queer youth and Aboriginal people – as at risk by virtue of their minority identity. They argue that the idea of ‘vulnerability’ works in tandem with ‘risk’ and ‘resilience’ to define social problems in terms of individual characteristics rather than social conditions. ‘Vulnerable populations’ become the target of interventions to
7 ONE Participation, ‘vulnerability’ and voice Emergence of participatory research Engaging research respondents in participatory research (PR) methods that promote the autonomy and ‘voices’ of people defined as vulnerable has gained prominence over recent years. From the 1970s, new developments and approaches in qualitative methodologies in the health and social sciences allowed for, and indeed embraced, more creative methods of investigation in a post-modern, post-structuralist era. The result was that new and more diverse empirical approaches began to
27 TWO Making sense of vulnerability Introduction The idea of vulnerability has come to feature prominently in academic debates concerning situations where people might suffer harm, injustice or precariousness. Yet despite powerful ethical connotations and prevalence in research, vulnerability is a concept most often characterised by vagueness and plurality of meaning (Hurst, 2008; Fawcett, 2009; Misztal, 2011; Wallbank and Herring, 2013; Mackenzie et al, 2014). Texts that deploy the notion in a specified, theorised or defined way are relatively few
1 ONE The vulnerability zeitgeist When Chris was 10 years old, he was taken to Pakistan by his family, where he was regularly beaten by his uncle for a period of six years. He returned to England to live with his parents and shortly afterwards became homeless after fleeing from his abusive father who had threatened to kill him. At age 17, he had recently secured the keys to his own social housing tenancy in a large inner-city housing estate and was being supported by a voluntary sector service for ‘vulnerable’ children. When asked about his vulnerability
The role of social divisions and identities, culture and patterns of social organisation in OCSV is clearly present but poorly understood. In this chapter we develop an intersectional analysis of OCSV research. The empirical data and the wider literature are drawn on to identify how theory on vulnerability and resilience might assist in preventing victimisation. The data almost exclusively situate vulnerability in the context of individualised risk, whereas theory expands these concepts into a wider social frame. We conclude with a framework that incorporates a
97 FIVE Vulnerable young people’s lives Introduction Dominant constructions of vulnerable people tend to imply the idea that they are ‘weak’ and different from ‘ordinary’ people, or that they are in need of protection through ‘supportive’ social interventions. Yet ‘vulnerable’ people’s own perspectives of relationships, trajectories, opportunities, structures and events that shape their ‘vulnerabilities’ offer a rather different view. This chapter is the first of three to examine vulnerability through considering the experiences and perspectives of
