Vulnerability: Prevention between Social Policy and National Security

What do policymakers mean when they use the language of vulnerability? Vulnerability is a concept which has come to dominate discussions across fields of safeguarding, counter-radicalisation programs, child protection policies, crime prevention, international development, and climate change adaptation.

In this lecture, Professor Heath-Kelly explores a range of contemporary British health and security programs, to highlight how 'vulnerability' discourse breaks down barriers between social policy agencies and the policing and security sector. 'Vulnerability' is multidirectional - bringing security logics of risk and threat into health and social care, while also transferring care interventions and welfare support into the domain of counterterrorism policing.

While the breaking down of policy silos is presented in terms of effectiveness and removing arbitrary barriers to cooperation, it also presents a significant expansion of social control through the cross-working of governmental agencies, and the relaxing of barriers to information sharing and protections of confidentiality.

Bio: Charlotte Heath-Kelly is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. She is one of the editors of the new book Vulnerability: Governing the Social Through Security Politics (Manchester University Press 2023). Professor Heath-Kelly is currently completing a 5 year European Research Council project, which explores the integration of health and social care professionals within counterterrorism agendas across Europe. She is also Primary Investigator on the ERC Starting Grant project 'Neoliberal Terror? The Radicalisation of Social Policy in Europe' (2020-25)

Recent Publications:

• (2024) 'Multi Agency Counter-Terrorism in Britain and Norway: Intelligence Agencies and the Administration of Welfare', Security Dialogue, online first.
• (2023) (eds. Charlotte Heath-Kelly & Barbara Gruber) (Manchester University Press).

Host or Publisher Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre