ABSTRACT
Denis Goulet argues that vulnerability is a characteristic of both individuals and societies. ‘An
individual is vulnerable when he is exposed to injury, societies when they have no adequate
defenses against the social forces which propel them into processes of change’ (Goulet 1971,
38). Both are also vulnerable when they lack power to effect those changes they desire. Devel-
opment, understood as a process of social and economic change, can be a source of great
freedom. Crocker has something like this in mind when he describes development as ‘beneficial
social change’ (2008). But when individuals and groups have little or no control over that
process, it can be a source of vulnerability as well. I call this agency vulnerability: the risk of
being limited in our ability to control the social and economic forces that affect us.
