Reconsidering Vulnerability

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Other Title
  • 脆弱性の再検討
  • 脆弱性の再検討 : フィールド研究の視座から
  • ゼイジャクセイ ノ サイケントウ : フィールド ケンキュウ ノ シザ カラ
  • From the Viewpoint of Field Studies
  • ―フィールド研究の視座から―

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Abstract

Discussion of vulnerability has been heated in the field of disaster studies since a series of large-scale natural calamities caused the death of tens of thousands in the Sumatra Earthquake in 2004, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008, the Haiti Earthquake in 2010, the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and the Nepal Earthquake in 2015, among others. The damage caused by these disasters varies by individual and community, but many people still now cannot restore their previous way of life, being forced to live far away from the peaceful days they would have had if these disasters had not happened. The arguments until now over vulnerability towards specific risks such as disasters and poverty have mostly focused on factors that increase damage. In most cases, however, vulnerability emerges from the various actors of a society and its structural violence. Also, its implication differs depending on the nature of those risks. Human vulnerability greatly depends on individual capability and the social conditions where those individuals are situated. Therefore, multi-layered understanding based on accumulated case studies is essential. One aim of this feature article is to reconsider the concept of vulnerability through field studies on disaster and conflict, ethnic discrimination, gender and microcredit. Most causes of failure to protect people from vulnerability are attributed to insufficient policies and defective social systems (UNDP, 2015). It is my hope that this article brings suggestions from the viewpoints of people in the field, particularly those facing high vulnerability to changes of living conditions and external shocks, by looking at disaster and conflict, discrimination and structural violence as the causes of vulnerability.

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