Vulnerabilità situata e risposte alle vulnerazioni

This paper comments on some passages of the book by Gianfrancesco Zanetti with particular reference to the notion of vulnerability that it assumes. There are multiple faces of vulnerability. They deal with the present possibility of injury, harm, discrimination, oppression, marginalization. Vulnerability is universal and, at the same time, particular. There are “inherent vulnerabilities”, that are located in the fact that humans are embodied and relational beings; “situational vulnerabilities”, regarding their context-specific dimension; “pathogenic vulnerabilities”, characterized as socially created vulnerability-aggravating mechanisms. Vulnerability must be at the heart of our ideas of social and institutional responsibilities. It may well lead to an update of the interpretation of the principles of dignity and equality. Law can play an important role in compensating, lessening and eliminating the situations that produce violations concerning the real-life subjects