脆弱性研究在2001年政府間氣候變遷第二工作小組以「衝擊、適應性與脆弱性」為題，重新定義脆弱性概念，使其成為氣候變遷科學的學術典範後，脆弱性成為氣候變遷、災害風險、災難管理、永續發展等學門的重要研究領域。儘管脆弱性在國際上具有相當高的應用性，然臺灣學界對脆弱性領域的認識與應用普遍多偏向實證主義取徑下的災害風險分析，而忽略了脆弱性自二次大戰以來從行為地理學、後馬克思主義、實在論、後現代主義、女性主義、生態理論等思潮吸取養份所形成的豐富多元樣貌。此侷限也反應出雖然1990年代末開始，英文期刊便出現不少優秀的論文以回顧脆弱性概念的發展與演繹，然華文學界本身卻少有優良的回顧論文。因此本文從二十世紀中災害研究的典範起始，引領讀者認識二次大戰後學術典範移轉所演育出的兩個脆弱性早期最重要的思潮，並論述這些早期思潮如何和其他思想論辯與交融，形成近代脆弱性多元論述的形態。文中梳理了當代脆弱性在不同知識論下所形成的五種不同分析取徑，並深入探討當前臺灣脆弱性研究在這廣博的理論思潮、研究方法與社會應用上的特性。文末批判了當前臺灣脆弱性研究在思維與方法上的單向與局限性，並提出開拓不同思潮以進行臺灣本土脆弱性(適應性) 研究之必要，以形成臺灣在其特殊性上的主體論述，並有助於增強和國際學界的對話。

Since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II expanded the term climate change in its 2001 report as “Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability”, vulnerability has become a theme in the fields of hazard risk, disaster management, sustainability science and, of course, climate change. Vulnerability is a broad concept with wide-ranging applicability; however, academia in Taiwan primarily approach vulnerability through positivist hazard risk analysis. This approach reveals an inability of academia to understand the significance of other epistemological fields and ideologies, such as behavioral geography, (post-) Marxism, Realism, Postmodernism, Feminism, and Ecology theory, and their contribution to contemporary vulnerability study. This study examines the evolution of vulnerability studies from the mid-20th century onward and its early practices that emerged after WWII, and also characterizes five schools of thought that constitute the entire] spectrum of vulnerability studies in subsequent decades. Major debates and their influences are also discussed. Finally, this study identifies the uni-dimensional nature and current limitations of research in Taiwan This study also calls for engagement with the social sciences and humanities, including human geography, in the study of vulnerability issues in society, thereby deepening our understanding of vulnerability