5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

Children and older adults are often referred to as vulnerable groups, especially when it comes to their need for care, dependency and physical frailty. Although they are “labelled” as vulnerable, vulnerability is not something that a person has per se, but something that is made possible through different layers or sources of vulnerability. If, on the one hand, vulnerability is part of the human condition, and as social beings we are dependent on the actions of others; on the other hand, vulnerability also sheds light on the practices, situations and relations through which people are constituted as more – or less – vulnerable. In spite of the fact that the concept of vulnerability is important for both childhood and ageing research, it is rarely discussed in a dialogue between these fields. In this panel, we aim to contribute to this research gap. By referring to a 'linking ages' approach (Wanka et al., 2024), in which we link the life stages together rather than viewing them as entirely distinct spheres of life, we aim to focus on experiences of violence and ask when and how children and older people become vulnerable through different practices and in different settings.

1. Veronika Magyar-Haas, "On the bodily and symbolic constitution of violence. Vulnerability theory perspectives"

2. Aysel Sultan, "A Deleuzian perspective on vulnerability in childhood and later life"

3. Grit Höppner, "Un/Doing Violence – Material-discursive Practices of Vulnerabilization in Institutional Long-Term Care for Older Adults"

4. To be confirmed