Vulnerability to Global Environmental Change

The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, taking stock of the centrality of vulnerability issues in its various initiatives, has also accorded vulnerability high priority as a cross-cutting issue. Entitlement theory provides a powerful entry into the ways in which social relations, economic systems and individuals create disasters out of moderately risky situations. C. S. Holling’s theory of resilience has been highly influential in vulnerability studies in the human and ecological sciences; but, unfortunately, few efforts in the vulnerability stream of work have fully exploited the detail, nuances and more recent developments of the theory. Robert Chambers, a development theorist, has written perceptively on issues of vulnerability in a development context and particularly enriched the analysis of coping and adaptability. An encouraging sign in vulnerability research and assessment is the gradual emergence of more integrative approaches. Analysing vulnerability entails confronting difficult issues in conceptualizing the framing of the vulnerability problematique.