LIBRI DI DANIELE CHIFFI

Fragility is perhaps the concept that best represents the many uncertainties of our time related to different issues such as political and economic instability, energy and ecological transition, climate change, demographic and migratory dynamics. The article aims at conceptually clarifying the notion of fragility so as to try to differentiate it from other related notions such as that of vulnerability. It is pointed out that vulnerability is a notion that, unlike fragility, can be understood (in line of principle) entirely by means of risk analysis tools; and secondly, although both fragility and vulnerability can be regarded as ‘dispositions’, they belong to two different types.

An explicative analysis of the concept of risk must take into account that risk assessment depends on individual beliefs and evaluations. A key point is the concept of harm, which appears to be subjective. One of the constitutive aspects of this concept is reference to values, which is also present in the statistical hypothesis testing, specifically when oriented to decision making in practical contexts. It is highlighted that some difficulties are found in specifying the ways in which the subjectivity and the values are to be taken into consideration in order to obtain a better understanding of the concept of risk.