Definitions
Vulnerability
Vulnerability is a universal aspect of the human condition, arising from our embodiment and our location within society and its institutions. On the individual level, vulnerability refers to the ever-present possibility of harm, injury or biological impairment or limitation. As human creations, institutions also are vulnerable to capture, cooptation and corruption. Vulnerability also is generative and presents opportunities for innovation and growth, creativity and fulfillment. As embodied and vulnerable beings, we experience feelings such as love, respect, curiosity, amusement and desire that make us reach out to others, form relationships and build institutions.The Vulnerable Subject
The Vulnerable Subject is a reconceptualized legal entity that is meant to replace the autonomous and independent liberal subject. When placed at the center of political and social endeavors, the Vulnerable Subject expands current ideas of state responsibility. It refocuses the relationship between the state and individuals upon the universal need for resilience, thereby legitimating claims calling for state responsibility to ensure meaningful access and opportunity to its institutions.Resilience
Resilience is a highly relational concept, emphasizing the importance of understanding individuals within institutions and in interaction with each other. The state and the societal institutions it brings into existence through law collectively play an important role in creating opportunities and options for addressing human vulnerability. Together and independently institutional systems, such as those of education, finance, and health, provide resources or assets that give individuals resilience in the face of our shared vulnerability. Assets or resources may take five forms: physical, human, social, ecological or environmental and existential. A responsive state, must ensure that its institutions provide meaningful access and opportunity to accumulate resources and that some individuals or groups of individuals are not unduly privileged, while others are disadvantaged.The State
A governing body. The manifestation of public authority and the ultimate legitimate repository of coercive power. Most readily visible through "branches" of government and in realms referred to as "public". The state also becomes manifest through complex institutional arrangements creating legal entities that operate in traditionally "private" realms. These include the family, domestic arrangements and the workplace.Equality
Legal equality in the United States tends to focus on formal and procedural processes, and not on more substantive or outcome-sensitive measures of equality. Many programs focus on target groups, rather than provide universal benefits. The Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative is interested in finding ways to ensure meaningful and universal equality of access and opportunity that specifically takes into account the state's responsibility to address existing entrenched privilege and disadvantage, not just prohibited forms of discrimination.Workshops/Uncomfortable Conversations
2020
A Workshop on Vulnerability and Corporate Subjectivity. This workshop has been rescheduled to Friday, October 2, 2020- Saturday, October 3, 2020. Commemorating Scholarly Milestones: The Legacy of The Neutered Mother at Twenty-Five Years March 6–7, 20202019
A Workshop on the Clash of Values: Paternalism versus Liberalism January 25–26, 2019 A Workshop on Universal Vulnerability and the Politics of Public Health: Challenging the 'Categories' of Age and Disability University of Lund, Sweden, September 19–20, 2019 A Workshop on Vulnerability and the Organisation of Academic Labour Nottingham Trent University, England, October 25–26, 20192018
A Workshop on Autonomy and Vulnerability February 23–24, 2018 View workshop Call for Papers as a PDF A Conference on Vulnerability and the Social Reproduction of Resilient Societies May 29–31, 2018 Law and Society Association , Two Roundtable Sessions: Reflections on Vulnerability Theory- Retrospective and Prospective June 7–10, 2018 , Toronto, Canada A Workshop on Vulnerability Theory and the Human Condition: Celebrating a Decade of Innovation September 20–21, 2018 , University of Leeds School of Law, UK2017
A Workshop on the Environment and Vulnerability: The Anthropocene in the Time of Trump, April 14–15, Atlanta, GA Subjects and Objects of Law: A Workshop on Animals and Vulnerability, May 31, Leeds, United Kingdom A Workshop on Property, Vulnerability, and Resilience, September 22–23, Colchester, United Kingdom (University of Essex Colchester campus) A Workshop on Professionalism and Vulnerability, October 27–28, Leeds, United Kingdom A Workshop on Legal Transitions and the Vulnerable Subject: Fostering Resilience through Law's Dynamism, December 8–9, Atlanta, GA2016
A Workshop on the Environment and Vulnerability, April 8–9, Northampton, MA A Workshop on Reproductive and Sexual Justice, April 29–30, Boston, MA A Workshop on Vulnerability and Social Justice, June 17–18, Leeds, UK Sex, Violence and Vulnerability: An Uncomfortable Conversation, November 4–5, Atlanta, GA A Workshop on Legal Migrations, Vulnerability, and Resilience, December 9–10, Atlanta, GA2015
A Workshop on Vulnerability and Education, April 24–25, Amherst, MA Vulnerability at the Intersection of the Changing Firm and the Changing Family, October 16–17, Atlanta, GA A Workshop on Children, Vulnerability and Resilience, December 11–12, Atlanta, GA2014
Vulnerability, Resilience, and Public Responsibility for Social and Economic Wellbeing, June 13–14, Buffalo, NY2013
Work and Vulnerability, April 5–6, Atlanta, GA2012
Sexuality and Justice2011
Structuring Resilience Beyond Rights: Vulnerability and JusticeReferences
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