“Vulnerability”: The Trouble with Categorical Definitions in Institutional Ethical Reviews, Forced Migration Research & Humanitarian Practice

The essay draws on my experience in an international research project exploring the concept of vulnerability within the international protection regime and the work of formulating a new institutional ethical review process at the Centre for Lebanese Studies. I draw on my experiences to explore the ethical consequences of using vulnerability as a lens to assist and understand refugees in policy and in research. I identify the main ethical dilemmas we faced in the context of our research project and in the institutional ethics review processes and ethical scholarship more generally to reflect on the contested and often charged meanings and uses of concepts such as “vulnerability” and categories like “refugees.” The essay also shows how refugees themselves relate to these meanings and practices.