Introduction: Inhabiting Vulnerability Throughout the Life Course

AbstractThis chapter presents the vulnerability framework used in the different sections chapters of this book. Vulnerability is defined as a process of resource loss in one or more life domains that threatens individuals in three major steps: (1) an inability to avoid individual, social or environmental stressors, (2) an inability to cope effectively with these stressors, and (3) an inability to recover from stressors or to take advantage of opportunities by a given deadline. The chapter also stresses the importance of resources, reserves and stressors to understand the dynamics of vulnerability throughout the life span. This life course perspective of vulnerability processes is better understood through three main perspectives: multidimensional (across life domains), multilevel (using micro, meso and macro perspectives) and multidirectional (the study of vulnerability life trajectories should envisage all possible directions, namely stability, decline, recovery, growth trajectories and in long-term). We also argue in this chapter that a vulnerability framework enables researcher to understand the craft of our lives and the responses, be they individual (through agency), collective (through support) or institutional (social policies) that can be given to life events, life transitions, and to the stressors that individuals inevitably face sooner or later in their life.