ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the differing perspectives that exist about children's experience of consumer vulnerability and argues that there is a need for greater clarity about the relationship between children and vulnerability in order to better inform policy. It demonstrates how a critical theory of space can enhance the study of consumer vulnerability. The book explores coping mechanisms used by vulnerable consumers. It focuses on how consumer-packing interactions and dealings may add to older consumers' experiences of vulnerability in the marketplace. The book also focuses on people with acquired vision impairments, and how they adapt to and cope with the marketplace. It presents a case for the use of poetry to explore vulnerability and contributes is part commentary, part poem and sets out to capture, the 'emotional intensity, hopelessness, liminality, voicelessness and selftransformative realities attendant to those experiencing vulnerability'.
