ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the problem by sketching the link that can exist between social situations of vulnerability and the status of the vulnerable individual. In order to validate the hypothesis it is essential to try and reposition the vulnerable individual on the trajectory of the historical development of the individual. Thus, the vulnerable individual could be understood to be the result of a process of the promotion of the individual, in crisis because this individual lacks the supports necessary to guarantee his or her solidity. The core of this hypothesis is that individuals are unequally supported to be individuals. In pre-industrial societies the vagabond represented practically the only possible profile of an individual. For a majority of workers the possibility of attaining positive individuality was achieved because of their inclusion in collectives’, worker collectives and union collectives, collective agreements, collective regulation of employment law and social protection.
