Covid-19: Lessons for and from Vulnerability Theory
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/13582291211041461 |
| Subject Matter | Editorials |
Editorial
International Journal of
Discrimination and the Law
2021, Vol. 21(3) 181–183
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/13582291211041461
journals.sagepub.com/home/jdi
Covid-19: Lessons for and from
Vulnerability Theory
This Special Issue of the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, guest edited
by Professor Martha Albertson Fineman, was pre-empted by the Covid-19 pandemic
which has impacted upon, and continues to impact upon, the lives of us all. To say that
Covid-19 has caused unprecedented harm to humanity is an understatement. The virus is
responsible for the deaths of over 4 million people across the globe with numbers rising
daily. Covid-19 has fundamentally disrupted our lives. Of particular interest in this
Special Issue, are the myriad ways in which it has exposed the fragility of our embodied
state and of the social institutions with which we are all engaged and on which we are all
reliant. This fragility has not been caused by Covid-19 but, rather, is related to our shared
and inherent vulnerability, which is always present, but which has been exposed by the
effects of the pandemic.
In this issue we explore the impacts and long-term implications of the pandemic using
Fineman’s vulnerability theory by which the human condition is understood as one of
universal and constant vulnerability which is countered by the resilience that we are able
to build and draw upon. As human beings, our embodied state leaves us susceptible to
continuous change across the life course and it is our embeddedness in social institutions
and arrangements and the nature and operation of those institutions which enable us, to
varying degrees, to build and exercise resilience. Fineman’s notion of universal vul-
nerability provides a useful starting point for thinking about the effects of and responses to
the Covid-19 pandemic across different states and within different legal contexts.
The contributions to this special issue interrogate a range of different state responses to
the pandemic to explore how those responses and related social arrangements have
mitigated or exacerbated its effects. Rather than the traditional non-discrimination ap-
proach which distinguishes between individuals and groups on the grounds of their
perceived specific vulnerabilities, the authors’analyses start from the perspective of our
shared universal vulnerability as embodied beings and seek to explore how the corporeal
manifestations of the pandemic are reflected, deflected and reproduced in and by the state
in its various guises and within different contexts by way of pre-existing institutions,
relationships and the arrangements that flow from them.
It has been an honour to work with our guest editor Martha Albertson Fineman who has
been an invaluable member of the team, generously giving her time and attention to the
authors as they have developed their contributions over the last few months. We are all
greatly indebted to Martha who opens the Special issue with her own contribution.
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