ABSTRACT
Globalization evokes a range of reactions from anger to pride, and from enthusiasm to fear. Both the word itself and the realities that it is taken to represent provoke strong opinions and powerful emotions. An extensive analysis of the social impact of globalization, centrally employing the concept of vulnerability, was the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2003 Report on the World Social Situation. In words, what value does the concept of vulnerability add to more mainstream and established ways of explaining the social impact of globalization. Vulnerability: analytical value In these ways, therefore, vulnerability adds analytical value to existing approaches towards theorising the social impact of globalization, a value that has direct political implications for both contesting real existing globalization and for elaborating public policy responses. Longer-term trends in inequality, particularly in the developed North, have been highlighted by Thomas Piketty’s research.
