Vulnerability, Relational Egalitarianism and Children Like Yara

The number of stateless, alone migrating children is rising despite comprehensive international laws and legal obligations in our globalized world. This raises questions about the moral principles behind existing obligations and societal order. This thesis considers our moral obligations through the concept of vulnerability and relational egalitarianism. It proposes that the current social, political, and legal liberal subject dominant in our philosophy and policy today is incomplete and suggests universal vulnerability as an addition to liberal subjecthood. This addition of vulnerability creates obligations for societies pursuing relational egalitarianism that expand beyond the paradigm recipients of societal consideration. This thesis argues that societies are obligated to ensure social equality for all those vulnerable to them, creating moral obligations beyond their borders and towards the protection and provision of stateless and alone migrating children.

Author

• Pösö, Emma

Language

• en

Keyword

• Liberal subject
• Statelessness
• Vulnerability
• Childhood studies
• moral obligation
• Relational egalitarianism

Date created

• 2022

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Philosophy & Social Policy

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Rafanelli, Lucia M
• Saidel, Eric

Committee Member(s)

• Brand, Jeffrey
• DeGrazia, David

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/0p096765x