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Gledhill, Clare (2022) Understanding Vulnerability: Exploring a Person Centred Perspective. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)]

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Abstract

This dissertation aims to explore whether vulnerability is a universally experienced feeling and if so, what causes one to feel vulnerable. It also explores the concept of person-centred vulnerability and whether this could impact the way in which public services are designed and delivered.

This study is of particular interest given the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift in recognising vulnerability on a national scale. It also led to the heavy reliance on delivering services digitally.

Via a cross-sectional online study, with over 2,000 participants nationally, I explore the concepts of vulnerability at an individual level: recognising core vulnerability theories such as universality and situational vulnerability alongside theories of agency, free will and power.

I found that the concept of vulnerability is complex; not all people see themselves as vulnerable and the term is associated with more delicate descriptors such as harm and risk. However, for those who did recognise their vulnerability, it was possible to determine that their sense of vulnerability was clearly linked to situational influences and that periods of vulnerability tend to be episodic rather than chronic.

I also discovered that feelings of vulnerability impacted the way in which individuals engaged with the world and that they would like the option to choose how they engage with public services via a range of both digital and analogue methods.

This study is by no means comprehensive, but it does give some insight into the concept of vulnerability at an individual level and how the concept of person-centred vulnerability could be harnessed to deliver services in a more effective way.

Item Type:	Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Keywords:	A study into the concepts of vulnerability and how that may feel at an individual level.
Depositing User:	Gledhill, Clare
Date Deposited:	20 Jun 2023 15:18
Last Modified:	20 Jun 2023 15:18
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/68500

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