ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the possibility of vulnerability as praxis in studies of social suffering. Drawing on research examining the community-based palliative care movement in Kerala, I discuss what it might mean to focus on vulnerability as an ethico-political imperative in our research process. Specifically, I explore how from a condition of vulnerability, we may adopt three modes of praxis: (1) vulnerability as susceptibility, which allows openness to silence and challenges epistemic certitude; (2) vulnerability as collective care, which acknowledges the role of time and generosities; and (3) vulnerability as learning to be affected by difference, where one learns from the wounding and the unsettled habitations that arise over the course of fieldwork.
