Politics, justice and the vulnerable subject: the contribution of feminist thought

The present article argues that the main contribution of contemporary feminist theory on vulnerability stems from the distinction of two possible kinds of vulnerability: an ontological vulnerability and a vulnerability linked to various processes (social, cultural, economic and juridical) of vulnerabilisation. This contribution is not limited to the critical and deconstructive level. As a positive proposal, it advances in the direction of an individual which, recovering its own relational, embodied, "fleshy" and situated dimension, abandons the illusion of its own sovereignty, accepts its vulnerability like an opening up to others, and thus also accepts the responsibility for an open and democratic dialogue and the need for institutions inspired by an "enabling" conception of justice (cf. Young 1990).