Vulnerability

To be vulnerable, just what does that mean? Is it only to be at risk? Is it only related to health or economics? Is being a member of specific ethic groups entail vulnerability? Understanding the term vulnerable seems to be pertinent at this time because of the COVID-19 pandemic. People are vulnerable to the disease in various degrees while they are also vulnerable to economic deprivation, social injustice, and environmental concerns. To understand who is vulnerable should assist governmental leaders to construct essential policies that will impact the lives of the people whom they serve. Adger (2006) described being vulnerable as “states of susceptibility to harm, powerlessness and marginality of both physical and social systems” (p. 268), whereas Proag (2014) stated that vulnerability is the “degree to which a system, or part of a system, may react adversely during the occurrence of a hazardous event” (p. 370). So it seems that harm from some future event that may impact a system adversely is central to the concept of vulnerability. Furthermore, the authors speak of ways to overcome vulnerability in order to cope, which includes the idea of resilience. Resilience is considered to be the ability to absorb some event that disrupts, adapt to such an event, and eventually to recover (Rose & Liao, 2005). Understanding both the nature of vulnerability and resilience requires research into the process of how both of these concepts relate to each other. The question becomes which research tradition is best used to uncover the nature of vulnerabilities and the requirement of resilience. Is it quantitative or qualitative? To answer the question, the reader is invited to consider the article in this column “COVID-19: Conduction of Research With Vulnerable Populations,” by Webber-Ritchey, Simonovich, and Spurlark.