Looseness: The Internal Restraint Of Socially Vulnerable Groups

Present studies believe in consensus that socially vulnerable groups have been in disadvantageous situations because they lack in the abilities of coping with contingencies. In answering why the groups lack in such abilities, however, present studies mistakenly refer to the idea that socially vulnerable individuals lack in such abilities. This paper offers an alternative explanation by proposing a Looseness hypothesis of socially vulnerable groups in the absence of external forces. With concepts of perfect looseness and imperfect looseness being defined, and taking into account the micro-level characteristics of socially vulnerable individuals, this paper argues that socially vulnerable groups in perfectly loose states are merely groups in being which are absolutely restrained by looseness and have but potential action power; socially vulnerable groups in imperfectly loose states, on the other hand, can partially overcome the looseness constraint but are still stranded in constant tension and crisis, and thus are at best described as temporarily organized groups. The main conclusion of the paper is that looseness is the internal cause of socially vulnerable groups' inabilities of coping with contingencies.