During the COVID-19 pandemic, the term "vulnerable" was applied to "individuals" and to "populations", "groups" and "countries" in discussions, laws and regulations; now it applies to all objects in relation to all kinds of threats.
However, rather than a label for governing people and places, the notion of "vulnerability" was expected to become an instrument to tackle the root causes of disasters, poverty and maldevelopment, as well as the inequalities and injustices they bring, whether social, political, economic or environmental. Despite this radical dimension, vulnerability has gradually been incorporated into public policies and international recommendations for global risk and disaster management.
This book is intended for researchers, students, managers and decision makers concerned with the management of not only risks and crises but also climate and environmental change.
The first part examines the multiple theoretical and conceptual approaches; the second explores vulnerability assessments, using examples from the Global North and Global South; and the third discusses tools, public policies and actions taken to reduce vulnerability.
Table of Contents
Introduction xiii
Samuel RUFAT and Pascale METZGER
Part 1 The Multiple Theoretical and Conceptual Approaches to Vulnerability 1
Chapter 1 Plural Vulnerabilities: Approaches in the Humanities 3
Sylvia BECERRA and Anne PELTIER
Chapter 2 Conceptual Models of Vulnerability or Vulnerabilities 25
Samuel RUFAT
Chapter 3 Risks, Crises and Ordinary Vulnerability 43
Pascale METZGER
Chapter 4 Vulnerabilities, Risk Governance and the Interplay of Stakeholders 63
Julien LANGUMIER
Part 2 Territorial Approaches and Vulnerability Assessments 85
Chapter 5 The Challenge of Measuring and Operationalizing Vulnerabilities 87
Samuel RUFAT
Chapter 6 Assessing Territorial Vulnerability: Concepts and Methods for an Integrated Approach to Vulnerability 113
Elise BECK and Jérémy ROBERT
Chapter 7 Analyzing the Vulnerability of Networks and Critical Infrastructures 135
Serge LHOMME
Chapter 8 From the Health Vulnerability of Territories to the Reduction of Health Inequalities 153
Zoé VAILLANT and Stéphane RICAN
Part 3 From Tools to Public Policies, Discourses and Actions 169
Chapter 9 What Are Vulnerability Maps For? 171
Samuel RUFAT and Patrick PIGEON
Chapter 10 Measuring Vulnerability: By Whom and for Whose Benefit? The Significance of Participation 195
Loïc LE DÉ, JC GAILLARD, Louise BAUMANN and Jake Rom CADAG
Chapter 11 Vulnerability in a Time of Climate Change and Global Urbanization 213
Béatrice QUENAULT
Chapter 12 Actors and Discourses of Vulnerability Reduction: From International to Local 235
Sandrine REVET and Pascale METZGER
Conclusion 257
Samuel RUFAT and Pascale METZGER
List of Authors 265
Index 267
