Concept note

In the past 15 years, "vulnerability" has attracted remarkable academic attention as a term characterising ontologically the human condition and, more concretely, the predicament associated with groups or individuals faced with insurmountable and intersectional challenges and discriminations. These range from the situations of individuals facing threats to their life and personal integrity due to armed conflicts and disasters to the condition of regular or irregular migrants exposed to grave forms of exploitation, to the challenges surrounding impoverished societies and populations hit by the consequences of climate change. All these situations deeply affect the socio-political, legal, and philosophical foundations of democratic institutions, solidarity and welfare policies, and human rights, which clearly underpin any inclusive approach to address ‘vulnerability’. The effect is a vicious circle that reproduces and perpetuates the “vulnerabilities” it creates.

The consequences are particularly complex in the period of human rights regression characterising the last decade as the norms and institutions of human rights have increasingly been under attack everywhere, the international political consensus which had been built around their promotion and protection is crumbling, and the space available for civil society to advocate for their realisation is shrinking and contested. The annual conference’s programme revolves around the multidimensional concept of ontological and situational "vulnerability" with specific regards to the enhanced challenges brought by such ongoing period of human rights regression.

The conference will critically elaborate this notion not only regarding individual and socio-political scenarios where people are affected by the consequences of destructive neoliberalist policies, but also about nonhuman subjectivities and ecosystems impacted by human-induced phenomena of degradation.