Vulnerability

Vulnerability ( to Latin vulnus, wound ') is a foreign word meaning " vulnerability " or " vulnerability ". It takes place in various scientific disciplines use.

Economics and Geography

In the Geographical development research, the concept of vulnerability / vulnerability has been used since the 1980s and has since undergone various developments. Vulnerability has become a central concept in the development of research and development cooperation.

In principle, the vulnerability concept is an extension of conventional poverty approaches. It was recognized that only the problems of development and social crises in the so- called "Third World " can not be adequately described and explained by poverty. Poverty - that is, the lack of money and assets - is only one of many causes and manifestations of social deprivation.

Robert Chambers has pointed out in 1989 in a definition of vulnerability, that vulnerability far beyond poverty extends: Vulnerability does not just mean scarcity and unmet needs, but a social condition which is characterized by vulnerability, insecurity and vulnerability. Vulnerable people and populations are exposed to shocks and stresses, and have difficulties to cope with this. These difficulties result not only from a lack of material resources, but also because those at the equal participation and participation in prosperity and happiness are denied because they are deprived of support or because they are not sufficiently involved in social networks. Hence vulnerability has not only an economic or material dimension ( poverty), but also a political and social.

So be vulnerable means to be exposed to stress factors ( external dimension ), this not being able to cope (internal dimension) and having to suffer the consequences of shocks and non- management.

Vulnerability must be understood as a dynamic process. Stakeholders may be different or vulnerable depending on the situation. Individual phases of this process range from the vulnerability stage of basic susceptibility (Phase coping or self- arranging ) through several intermediate steps up to the existential catastrophe, which is characterized by a collapse of the life-insurance and total dependence of those affected by external assistance. A famine is an example of such a collapse.

In this context see also: Portal: Development Cooperation

Sociology

In the disaster sociology is also working on the question of how protection can be improved for potentially affected. To this end, indicators will be developed to put the risks to protection options (including options for protecting yourself ) in relation to work and for groups of people and for sociological enclosed spaces.

Psychology

In psychology, vulnerability is viewed as the opposite of resilience. Vulnerable persons are vulnerable to emotionally wounded and more likely to develop mental disorders. The vulnerable child or child with a difficult temperament is characterized, according to Judith Rich Harris by the following properties:

• Tendency: active, impulsive, aggressive and easy to get angry
• Trend: from routine looking bored and external stimuli;
• Lack of fear of consequences of one's actions;
• Little empathy for the feelings of others;
• Below-average IQ

Everyone goes through in his life more vulnerable stages, such as puberty, in which an increased risk of developing a mental disorder. See also: diathesis - stress model.

Medicine

In medicine, vulnerability refers to the susceptibility, for example, of suffering from schizophrenia; in many diseases ( certain neoplastic diseases, psychiatric diseases, autoimmune diseases such as allergies) is the susceptibility of individuals to various factors (eg, genetic, psychosocial, expositionell - pollutants, smoking) together caused. See predisposition, diathesis (medicine).

The perceived vulnerability is the subjective belief of a person in terms of the probability with which he will be affected by a particular health problem.

Computer science

In computer science, with vulnerability usually a concrete vulnerability of a computer system or network meant that can be exploited by an exploit. See also computer security.

Ecology

Special Sensitivity of ecosystems, species and populations to environmental conditions - unlike resilience. In the adaptation of ecosystems to long-term climate change, reduce vulnerability by adapting land use and infrastructure is a task of spatial and environmental planning.