Short Abstract

This panel examines how vulnerability operates as both a structure of domination and a strategy of survival in global development. It interrogates whether vulnerability can be mobilized toward justice and transformation, or whether it inevitably reproduces colonial hierarchies of dependency.

Description

In an era of overlapping crises, "vulnerability" has become central to how humanitarian and development interventions are programmed and prioritized. At the same time, states, local organizations, and communities have been increasingly mobilizing vulnerability not only as a condition to be addressed, but as a resource to be leveraged.

Drawing on recent scholarships on "vulnerability" (Turner, 2025) and "eco-humanitarian rentierism" (Tsourapas & El-Anis, 2025), this panel examines how vulnerability and crisis narratives are operationalized and instrumentalized across different scales: from state-led appeals to refugee-led organizing efforts. In doing so, the panel asks:

- How are vulnerabilities designated? And who decides which forms of suffering are visible or deserving within global aid regimes?

- How do states and communities mobilize vulnerability and crisis narratives to secure legitimacy and resources?

- Can vulnerability be reimagined as a site of agency and solidarity, rather than dependence and control?

We invite both academic and creative or practice-based submissions that aim to understand how different actors navigate the moral economies of crisis in unequal global systems. By bridging macro-level state strategy and micro-level community practices, the panel seeks to rethink vulnerability otherwise for more just and plural futures of development.

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