Researching Vulnerabilities from a Life Course Perspective
CALL FOR PAPERS | DEADLINE – 15 JUNE
Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
13-14 November 2024
Organised by LIFE Research Group, Sofia Aboim and Ana Patrícia Hilário
The concept of vulnerability has been extensively theorised in the social sciences and has often been discussed in the context of social inequalities, disaster risk reduction, climate change, public health and development studies. As a multidimensional concept, vulnerability has been key to understanding the impact of many global crises (such as environmental change, economic instability or health epidemics) and the social damage they cause, threatening socio-economic opportunities and the health and well-being of present and future generations. While widely used to discuss social inequalities, the concept of vulnerability highlights the need to pay attention to relational and contextual specificities in addressing social problems. In the face of current global crises and multiple challenges, it is essential to examine how different societies and diverse social groups understand and respond to risks, and how these vulnerabilities are shaped by socio-economic factors, cultural beliefs, social norms, power dynamics and institutional structures.
The LIFE Conference aims to create a space for critical discussion of the challenges and opportunities of studying multiple vulnerabilities from different disciplines and using different methodologies. The LIFE conference aims to stimulate debate on conceptual approaches and methodological strategies for the in-depth study of vulnerability in different contexts. While several methods have been adopted to measure vulnerability, the subjective dimension of the concept and the emphasis on the agency of vulnerable groups have challenged conventional methodologies and called for innovative approaches. However, how to study vulnerability has been less discussed across the social sciences. Visual, creative, sensory and participatory approaches could be strategically used to study vulnerability. This discussion is of paramount importance as we need to rethink and reinvent the methods we choose to increase the richness of the data we collect.
With this in mind, we particularly encourage papers that use an intersectional lens to highlight how class, gender, race, age, disability, illness and other factors shape vulnerability. We also welcome papers that take a life course perspective to explore vulnerability over time and across generations, and that contribute to our understanding of the situated impact of global challenges in different geographies, from Portugal and Europe to Portuguese-speaking countries and global realities. We invite theoretical and empirical papers on conceptual and methodological approaches to vulnerability. Conceptual challenges to vulnerability research, empirical studies and especially methodological innovations are priorities.
References:
Birkmann, J. (Ed.). (2013). “Measuring vulnerability to natural hazards: Towards disaster resilient societies.” United Nations University Press.
Chambers, R. (1989). “Vulnerability, coping and policy.” Institute of Development Studies Bulletin, 20(2), 1-7.
Marino, E.K. and Faas, A.J. (2020), Is Vulnerability an Outdated Concept? After Subjects and Spaces. Annals of Anthropological Practice, 44: 33-46. https://doi.org/10.1111/napa.12132
Keynote speakers:
Ayo Wahlberg & Mario Cardano
Stratified vulnerabilities by Ayo Wahlberg
Ayo Wahlberg is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. He works broadly within the field of social studies of (bio)medicine and his research has focused on traditional herbal medicine (in Vietnam and the United Kingdom), selective reproductive technologies (in China and Denmark) as well as health metrics (in clinical trials and global health). He was the Principal Investigator of a 5-year (2015-2020) project entitled “The Vitality of Disease – Quality of Life in the Making”, for which he has received funding from the European Research Council. This project was empirically investigating and analysing the making of ‘quality of life’ through four concrete ethnographic studies of genetic counselling, patient education programmes, clinical trials and patient associations. VITAL studies focused on how knowledge about living with disease is assembled and mobilised, on the one hand, and how morbid living is negotiated and practiced on the other. He was the author of Good Quality – The Routinization of Sperm Banking in China (University of California Press, 2018), and the co-editor of Selective Reproduction in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). He received his PhD from The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Trust in health care by Mario Cardano
Mario Cardano is a full Professor of Qualitative Methods for Social Research and Sociology of Health at the Department of Culture Politics and Society of Turin University. He is also an adjunct professor of the Federal University of Pelotas (Brazil) Nursing Faculty and at the Department of Mental Health and Community Health of the State University of Montes Claros (Brazil). His research has tackled two interwoven topics: the relationship between health and society and the methods and epistemologies of qualitative research. He has published several books and essays on qualitative methodology and Sociology of Health. He has developed a reflection aimed to define and defend the soundness of qualitative research. Furthermore, he has proposed a specific frame for qualitative research in the theory of argumentation, which plays, in qualitative research the same role played by the theory of probability in quantitative research. In the sociology of health’s area, he focused his research on mental health, particularly the coercive measures, and vaccine hesitancy. He is a board member of the Research Network of Sociology of Health and Medicine of the European Sociological Association. He received his PhD from the University of Trento.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Please send your abstract (max. 200 words) by 15 June 2024 to sofia.aboim@ics.ulisboa.pt and patriciahilario@gmail.com . Abstracts may be submitted in English or Portuguese. Decisions will be sent by email until 15 July 2024.
Organisers: LIFE Research Group – Sofia Aboim, Ana Patrícia Hilário,
Venue: Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Language:
Portuguese and English will be the languages of the LIFE Conference.
Costs:
There is no fee for the conference.
Who can attend?
The LIFE Conference is open to all those interested in debating multiple vulnerabilities across the social sciences. Submissions from PhD students and early-career researchers are welcomed.
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