Climate, Society and Elemental Insurance

In this book, world-leading social scientists come together to provide original insights on the capacities and limitations of insurance in a changing world. Climate change is fundamentally changing the ways we insure, and the ways we think about insurance.

Kate Booth is a human geographer, specializing in the field of critical insurance studies. She is particularly interested in the economic and social geographies of insurance in a changing climate, and implications for inequality and inequity. Kate has also worked on projects looking at sense of place, and the role of arts and culture in urban regeneration. Her work is published in journals such as Progress in Human Geography, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, Urban Studies, and Qualitative Inquiry. Chloe Lucas is a human geographer at the University of Tasmania. A communications specialist, she began her career making documentaries about science and landscape history for the BBC. Chloe's research explores the values and experiences underlying different social responses to climate change, and identifies pathways to more empathetic and inclusive climate conversations. Her recent work focusses on how communication and cultural context drives social adaptation to extreme weather events, and can be found in journals including Climatic Change, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, Geographical Research, and WIRES Climate Change. Shaun French is an Associate Professor in Economic Geography at the University of Nottingham. He focuses on the geographies of economic practice and knowledge, specifically financial services and money, socially responsible investment, and financial centres. As part of the University's Rights Lab, he is developing new work on debt, vulnerability and anti-money laundering.

List of Tables List of Figures List of Contributors Acknowledgement Chapter 1. Introduction Kate Booth Section I. Earth Chapter 2. Insurance and geoengineering: From the delusional to the terrestrial? Lauren Rickards Chapter 3. Indexing the soil Olli Hasu and Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen Chapter 4. Renaturalising sovereignty: Ex-ante risk management in the Anthropocene Kevin Grove Section II. Water Chapter 5. Stopping the flow: The aspirational elimination of cross-subsidies in the United States and the United Kingdom Rebecca Elliott Chapter 6. After the flood: Diverse discourses of resilience in the United States and Australia Chloe Lucas and Travis Young Chapter 7. Flood insurance: A governance mechanism for supporting equitable risk reduction and adaptation? Mark Kammerbauer and Christine Wamsler Section III. Fire Chapter 8. Between absence and presence: Questioning the value of insurance for bushfire recovery Scott McKinnon, Christine Eriksen, and Eliza de Vet Chapter 9. Is fire insurable? Insights from bushfires in Australia and wildfires in the United States Kenneth S. Klein Chapter 10. Fire insurance and the 'sustainable building': The environmental politics of urban fire governance Pat O'Malley Section IV. Air Chapter 11. The relational urban geographies of re/insurance: Florida hurricane wind risk and the making of Singapore's catastrophe finance hub Zac J. Taylor Chapter 12. Emotions and under-insurance: Exploring reflexivity and relations with the insurance industry Nick Osbaldiston Chapter 13. Insure the volume? Sensing air, atmospheres and radiation in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Christine Eriksen and Jonathon Turnbull Section V. Big data Chapter 14. The uncertain element: Personal data in behavioural insurance Maiju Tanninen, Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen, and Minna Ruckenstein Chapter 15. Insurance, insurtech, and the architecture of the city Liz McFall Chapter 16. Conclusion: Deconstructing the dualisms of elemental insurance Chloe Lucas Index