Relations of Harm and Vulnerability: Cultural-Psychological and Social-Theoretical Perspectives - Monique Kaulertz

This anthology honours Jürgen Straub’s influential contributions to cultural and social psychology, humanistic psychology, hermeneutics, and social theory. Bringing together leading scholars, it explores and further develops Straub’s concept of relations of harm and vulnerability, which examines how past experiences of violence and injury continue to shape individuals, relationships, and societies across generations.
The volume investigates the methodological, empirical, and theoretical potential of this concept as a sensitising framework for qualitative social research. Through perspectives ranging from aesthetic practice and embodied experience to post-migrant societies, the contributors highlight both its analytical value and its limitations. In doing so, the book presents relations of harm and vulnerability as a productive and evolving approach to understanding the enduring effects of violence and discrimination in contemporary social life.