Theorising globalisation's social impact: proposing the concept of vulnerability

The Link Between Information and Communication Technologies and Global Public Health: Pushing Forward

“…9 Globalization includes international trade liberalization as well as increasing flows of technology, information, and capital across country borders and increasing international labor migration. 10,11 GPH is a challenging field that focuses on health-related issues that are able to transcend national boundaries. It requires global cooperation for the development and implementation of effective solutions, it embraces both disease prevention in populations and clinical care of individuals, and it is highly interdisciplinary.…”

Vulnerability Dimensions and Access to Affordable Housing: The Case of the Waste Picker Community in Amritsar City, India

“…Seeking specifically to unravel the theoretical understandings of vulnerability, researchers such as Bernett, Lambert, and Fry (2008, p. 103 in Rufat, , p. 506) opine that vulnerability is quite an imprecise term, with intuitive resonance but no single definition. As such, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2003, p. 14 in Kirby, , p. 636) defines vulnerability as a “state of high exposure to certain risks and uncertainties, in combination with a reduced ability to protect or defend oneself against those risks and uncertainties and cope with their negative consequences. It exists at all levels and dimensions of society and forms an integral part of the human condition, affecting both individuals and society as a whole.” Having evolved from the field of hazard studies, most recent vulnerability studies by authors such as Kirby (, p. 633) state that “the concept of vulnerability offers the potential to capture in a unique way, the distinctive impacts a phenomenon can have on society and on human livelihoods.” Birkmann (2006, p. 21 in Roy, Hulme, & Jahan, , p. 160) is of the view that “vulnerability represents the system or the community's physical, economic, social, or political susceptibility to damage.” Authors such as Theodos et al (2010 in Pendall, Theodos, & Franks, , p. 272) define vulnerability as a condition of households.…”

Development and Testing of the Elderly Social Vulnerability Index (ESVI): A Composite Indicator to Measure Social Vulnerability in the Jamaican Elderly Population

“…There is a growing consensus that many new and emerging risks are related to central features of modern society such as modernization and globalization (Dobrenkov 2006;Kirby 2006;Therborn 2006;Stiglitz 2002;Deacon 1999;Sassen 1998). For instance, many developing societies are experiencing rapid social changes as a result of industrialization and modernization and these changes are sources of new risks and vulnerability (Holzmann and Jorgensen 2003).…”

“…This is reflected in the significant between-country variations and the widening gap between the richest and poorest counties (World Bank 2001). Kirby (2006) has proposed that the impact of globalization on society is best captured by the concept of vulnerability. He argues that whereas the impact of globalization is most commonly assessed in terms of trends in poverty and inequality, this poses problems of definition and measurement.…”

“…Risk also has limitations in that it is associated with the risk-society thesis which focuses on risks related to modernity while many of the risks that people face worldwide are the result of economic recession and trade and economic liberalization. Finally, according to Kirby (2006), the human security concept in some ways overlaps with vulnerability, but it is conceptually vague and this reduces its analytical usefulness. Vulnerability, on the other hand, is a more comprehensive concept as it focuses on the risk as well as the coping mechanisms, and points to the fact that vulnerability is a feature of the human condition with its roots and solutions in the social order.…”