FROM SOCIAL VULNERABILITY TO SOCIAL RISK IN BRAZIL

Resumo

This article aims to revise and simplify two important concepts for understanding social issues involving characters from a universe in which there are deprivations, dangers, and prejudices. The definitions of “social vulnerability” and “social risk” still present contradictions, being generally confused and even mixing their meanings. Assuming that the meaning of the terms vulnerability and risk can give rise to similar interpretations, in practice the state that characterizes a social group or individual in a state of vulnerability presents itself with distinct characteristics in the case of risk. In this sense, it is very important to understand that social vulnerability is a situation in which the person or community have a lack of basic services that are not being supplied by themselves or by the State. Since the worsening of this situation, characterized as a negative social progression of the previous condition, it becomes, consequently, a social risk.