Theorising globalisation's social impact: proposing the concept of vulnerability

The concept of vulnerability was introduced into IR theorising by Keohane and Nye who saw it as one of the consequences of complex interdependence and it is being increasingly employed by IGOs to capture the impact of globalisation on society. However, the concept has been little used in the academic literature on globalisation, except in a descriptive sense. This article argues that the concept has the potential to fill a gap in the toolkit of the ‘new’ IPE, offering an analytical category that can capture the distinctive impact of globalisation on society more adequately than other concepts that are more widely used. The article begins by surveying how the concept has been used by Keohane and Nye and by IGOs. It then offers a definition and illustrates the application of the concept by describing some of the principal ways in which globalisation is increasing risk and eroding coping mechanisms. It goes on to argue that the concept of vulnerability captures in a fuller way the distinctive social impact of globalisation than do other concepts widely used in the IPE literature, examining in turn the limitations of the concepts of poverty/inequality, risk and insecurity. Finally, the article situates the concept of vulnerability within the social theory of Karl Polanyi, arguing that it expresses in the conditions of today's globalisation the threats to human livelihood from the inroads of the market that are widely referred to by scholars within the ‘new’ IPE, capturing better than do other concepts the key features of these threats as seen by Polanyi. The article concludes by proposing the concept of vulnerability as a core conceptual category for IPE scholars that offers the potential for the disciplinary field to generate more original insights into the social impacts of the political economy processes to the understanding of which it has made such a major contribution.