Vulnerability: Governing the Social Through Security Politics

The book explores how vulnerability is used as an organizing concept in migration detention, integration, public health, national security, and social policy, blurring the lines between welfare state logics and national security ends. It demonstrates how vulnerability governance permeates policy sectors, transforming the methods used to govern, problematize, and resolve issues, and bringing questions of risk management and security into social policy.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 27 June 2023
Publisher: Manchester University Press

Vulnerability has emerged as a central concept in various fields, including migration detention, integration, public health, national security, and social policy. This volume explores the increasing overlap between welfare state logics and national security objectives, highlighting how governments and international agencies utilize the language of vulnerability to identify and address the needs of vulnerable populations. However, this vulnerability is also framed as potentially dangerous, leading to the securitization of these communities and individuals.

Through international case studies, this book demonstrates how vulnerability governance permeates policy sectors, transforming the methods used to govern, problematize, and resolve social issues. It brings questions of risk management and security into social policy, while simultaneously integrating social policy sectors into counterterrorism delivery. The combination of welfare state and security logics deepens interventions into societies, securitizing communities and individuals based on their perceived needs. This results in the governance of the social through security politics, where vulnerability becomes a tool for managing and controlling populations.

The rise of vulnerability as an organizing concept in these fields raises important questions about the boundaries between public welfare, national security, and individual rights. It challenges the traditional dichotomy between the state and the market and emphasizes the need for a more holistic approach to addressing social and political challenges. At the same time, it raises concerns about the potential exploitation of vulnerability by governments and international agencies for political gain or control.

Overall, this volume provides a valuable insight into the complex relationship between vulnerability, governance, and security in contemporary society. It sheds light on the ways in which vulnerability is used as a tool for both social intervention and control, and highlights the need for a more nuanced and empathetic approach to addressing the needs of vulnerable populations.

Weight: 574g
Dimension: 163 x 241 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781526169372