[The concept of vulnerability and its meanings for public policies in health and social welfare].

Are concepts of vulnerability capable of influencing social practices and citizenship in the fields of health and social welfare? The article critically assesses this question through a comprehensive-interpretative approach to hermeneutics-dialectics and a review of the literature produced on the theme in the last two decades. There is no vast theoretical output on the theme. However, although conceptually imprecise, the term "vulnerability" expands the understanding of the multiple factors that weaken subjects in the exercise of their citizenship. Professional action in the sphere of health and social welfare policies and the social imaginary are forged by the incorporation of concepts that can either reduce or reinforce vulnerabilities.