Cultures and Transformations of Vulnerability

Abstract

The attitude we take towards vulnerability depends on our representations and imaginations of it. In this section, the question is not only ‘how do I imagine myself being hurt by this or that particular object’, or ‘how do I imagine the possibility of that particular event’, which is the imaginative dimension of being vulnerable which I explained in the previous chapter, but also what kind of attitude we take towards existential vulnerability in general. The conscious experience of vulnerability is not a single happening, but occurs frequently at many different times. As a result, we discern patterns of vulnerability. Moreover, we are the kind of beings to whom things do not just happen: we take an attitude towards what happens and try to give meaning to those experiences and find meaning in those experiences. These imaginative-representational, cognitive, meaning-giving, and meaning-finding processes can be called cultures of vulnerability. I write ‘cultures’ rather than ‘culture’, since these processes vary with time, place, and the people involved. Cultures of vulnerability, then, are shaped by attempts to imagine, understand, and give meaning to human vulnerability. This can take place at various levels: persons, groups, organisations, professions, societies, and ‘civilisations’. Going beyond particular experiences of vulnerability, a culture of vulnerability reaches a certain level of abstraction and distance and generates ideas—for instance, ideas about death. Representations, too, start leading their own lives in the form of art. But at the same time, these ideas and representations do not stand alone from experiences of vulnerability; they colour subsequent experiences, forming a feedback loop. Cultures of vulnerability—at various levels—co-constitute our vulnerability experiences. We live in cultures of vulnerability. I already suggested above that our imaginative and emotional vulnerability experience is mediated by our ‘mental’ life. But this mental life does not stand alone, separate from the culture in which we live. Our imaginative and emotional experience of vulnerability is culturally mediated. For instance, not only our personal history but also the history of our society is relevant to vulnerability experiences. In addition, cultures shape our experiences as well as our practices. In the previous chapter, I argued that vulnerability cannot be understood apart from action. What we do makes us vulnerable. But action is not just about single actions. Just as there are patterns in our experience of vulnerability, there are also patterns in our actions, usually called habits. And actions and habits are part of a constellation of actions, objects, and ideas. Let us call them practices. Practices of vulnerability, then, are intertwined with experiences of vulnerability.