Towards an interdisciplinary conceptualisation of vulnerability

Abstract Each discipline uses uncertainty in different ways. This paper reviews the range of definitions and methodologies used by researchers to approach vulnerability in the search for an interdisciplinary conceptualisation. Two themes (poverty, exclusion and marginalisation on the one hand, and society–environment interactions on the other) are used to explore the authors' conceptualisation of vulnerability. The paper points towards possible convergences of these approaches. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.