Toward a Life Course Framework for Studying Vulnerability

Abstract

Interest in the study of vulnerability has experienced impressive growth across various disciplines. To contribute to this major but scattered development in the study of vulnerability, this article argues for a multidisciplinary life-course framework. This framework promotes a systemic and dynamic perspective focused on three complementary research directions: multidimensional, multilevel, and multidirectional. On the basis of this life course perspective, the authors also propose a definition of vulnerability as a dynamic process of stress and resources across various domains of life (i.e., work, family, health, migration, etc.), levels (i.e., person, group, collective), and time (i.e., long-term processes).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank Grégoire Bollman for his help in editing the reference list and Annahita Ehsan for revising the English in the last version of this article.

FUNDING

This publication benefited from the support of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES – Overcoming vulnerability: Life-course perspectives, financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The authors are grateful to the Swiss National Science Foundation for providing financial assistance.

Additional information

Funding

This publication benefited from the support of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES – Overcoming vulnerability: Life-course perspectives, financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The authors are grateful to the Swiss National Science Foundation for providing financial assistance.