Accessing Vulnerability – Investigating narratives of vulnerability at DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture

Abstract: The question ‘What is Vulnerability’ is hard to answer. This thesis deals with this question by investigating narratives of vulnerability amongst staff members at DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture. Drawing on the thoughts, theories and epistemology of understanding vulnerability by Erinn C. Gilson and Judith Butler, this thesis seeks to uncover how vulnerability is narrated amongst staff who work with what they themselves call vulnerable groups. Based on a social constructivist methodology, the analysis investigates three themes of the narratives; normality, ambivalence and power representation, finding that it is the very ambivalence between the perceived and spoken normality of the individual and the perceived and spoken normality of the vulnerable groups which feeds and creates power relations. It all boils down to a discussion of the findings of the analysis focusing on the power of choosing to own ones vulnerability and the implications for the power structures surrounding the term vulnerability.