Vulnerability, coping and policy (editorial introduction)

Through the new insights from their fieldwork and analysis, the contributors to this IDS Bulletin show how ignorant, and sometimes how wrong, we in the development professions have been. Through local study and individual cases, they also show how varied is that universe of vulnerability and poverty for which we seek simple explanations and single solutions. Most who read these articles will feel unease at the confidence with which in the past we have combined ignorance with error. They may speculate too on how wrong we continue to be. The lesson for the future is to enquire and question, doubting what we think we know, and learning from and with those who are vulnerable and poor, as contributors to this IDS Bulletin have done; and to do this, not once, not in one locality, and not for one group only, but again and again, in each place, and for each sort of person. For that is the surest path to better understanding, and to action that will better fit and serve the diversity of conditions and people and their changing priorities and needs.