This book describes and analyzes the conceptual ambiguity of vulnerability, in an effort to understand its particular applications for legal and political protection when relating to groups. Group vulnerability has become a common concept within legal and political scholarship but remains largely undertheorized as a phenomenon itself. At the same time, in academia and within legal circles, vulnerability is primarily understood as a phenomenon affecting individuals, and the attempts to identify vulnerable groups are discredited as essentialist and stereotypical. In contrast, this book demonstrates that a conception of group vulnerability is not only theoretically possible, but also politically and legally necessary. Two conceptions of group vulnerability are discussed: one focuses on systemic violence or oppression directed toward several individuals, while another requires a common positioning of individuals within a given context that conditions their agency, ability to cope with risks and uncertainties, and manage their consequences. By comparing these two definitions of group vulnerability and their implications, Macioce seeks a more precise delineation of the theoretical boundaries of the concept of group vulnerability.
Author(s): Fabio Macioce
Series: Critical Political Theory and Radical Practice
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 200
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Vulnerability: What Are We Talking About?
Introduction
Vulnerability and the Liberal Paradigm
Autonomy and Vulnerability: The Relational Perspective
Vulnerability as a Universal and Particular Condition
Vulnerability and the Political Dimension: Meaning and Role of Vulnerable Groups
References
3 The Vulnerable Groups and Their Legal Value
Introduction
The Development of the Notion of Group Vulnerability in International Law
Group Vulnerability in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights
Group Vulnerability in EU Law
Group Vulnerability and Bioethics
References
4 Towards a Theory of Group Vulnerability
Introduction
The Challenges of the Concept of the Vulnerable Group
Developing the Notion of Group Vulnerability
Identity-Based Group Vulnerability
Positional Group Vulnerability
The Consequences of Group Vulnerability, Between the Rights of Individuals and the Rights of Groups
Conclusions
References
5 Group Vulnerability and Parallel Dimensions
Introduction
Vulnerable Groups and Collective Victimhood
Vulnerable Groups and Minorities
Vulnerable Groups and Discrimination
References
6 Group Vulnerability and Power
Introduction
Vulnerability, Power, and Oppression
Group Vulnerability and Resistance
Group Vulnerability and Resource Distribution
References
7 Vulnerability in a Positional Sense: The Case of Clinical Trials
Introduction
Positional Vulnerability and Consensus
Group Vulnerability and Pandemic
Treatments, Trials and Informed Consent: The Case of Vulnerable Groups
Conclusions
References
8 Identity-Based Group Vulnerability: The Case of “Irregular” Migrants
Introduction
Irregularity Conditions and Vulnerability Factors
Group Vulnerability, Agency, and Resistance Practices
Conclusions
References
Index
