Qualitative study reveals diverse forms of agency and reactivation among unemployed adults over 45, suggesting a broader framework for understanding responses to social vulnerability.
Sociology does not pay close enough attention to agencies in a situation of vulnerability, especially when they are not expressed in collective action, as can be clearly witnessed in the thesis of “the corrosion of character” or “social resilience.” This article seeks to provide a solution to these limitations. After a critical review of both, the thesis of the corrosion of character and the concept of resilience (individual and social), an alternative theoretical framework to rethink the relationship between social vulnerability and agency is proposed. We prove the potential of this perspective to focus our attention on “reactivation,” as a form of agency within vulnerability, by means of an empirical analysis of the practices of the unemployed over the age of 45, based on qualitative research carried out in Spain. We propose a typology of reactions to vulnerability which allows us to capture the diversity of agencies present in the lives of these people.
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Selgas et al. (2026) studied this question.
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