Between absence and presence 101
past investments, along with a significant demand for future time in recreating what was lost. Time is therefore highly valuable to bushfire survivors.
The ways in which insurance may or may not enable the purchase of time
and labour or, conversely, may cost more time through complex application
processes and disputed negotiations (Whittle et al. 2012), are critical to survivor assessments of its value.
Attending to survivor accounts allows for a deeper understanding of
the entwining of home, recovery, and insurance, and suggests the need to
understand both the value and the cost of insurance in more than monetary
terms. In making assessments both of the value of insurance, and of the
insurability of belongings, disaster survivors do not always position or configure insurance as a purely financial mechanism. Rather, the value or cost
of insurance is assessed in more than monetary terms, in which negative
impacts on wellbeing, the loss of time, and the nonfinancial value of belongings, each often take priority. In other words, amid the emotional complexity of recovery processes, the value of insurance is what people make it.
Below, we outline our case study sites and methods. In order to explore
questions of insurance and ‘value’ in more than monetary terms, we have
then divided our analysis into three sections. First, we explore impacts
of insurance on survivor wellbeing. We consider how bushfire survivors
assessed the value of insurance based both on the emotional and the financial support they received. Second, we consider the insurability of material
belongings within the home, and explore tensions between the value of an
object as assessed by an insurer and a bushfire survivor respectively. Finally,
we examine how bushfire survivors prioritised intangible and uninsurable
objects, such as time and labour, in ways that challenge ideas of insurable
value. In each case, we highlight the agency of bushfire survivors in actively
assessing the value of insurance, particularly as it relates to how bushfire
and insurance affected the absence and presence of home – materially and
emotionally.
Case studies and methods
We draw on qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with bushfire survivors in two case study sites in New South Wales, Australia. The Blue
Mountains and Kangaroo Valley are both fire-prone areas, and both
have a history of damaging bushfires. In October 2013, bushfires in the
Blue Mountains, on the western outskirts of the Greater Sydney region,
destroyed 203 houses and damaged a further 286. Fourteen semi-structured
interviews with 17 Blue Mountains residents (including three couples) were
conducted four years after the fires, in late 2017 and early 2018. During the
summer of 2019-2020, bushfires of unprecedented scale burnt across massive
areas of south-east Australia, destroying 2,439 homes in New South Wales
and resulting in the death of 33 people and a billion animals (Hughes et al.
2020). This included parts of the Blue Mountains as well as the Shoalhaven
past investments, along with a significant demand for future time in recreating what was lost. Time is therefore highly valuable to bushfire survivors.
The ways in which insurance may or may not enable the purchase of time
and labour or, conversely, may cost more time through complex application
processes and disputed negotiations (Whittle et al. 2012), are critical to survivor assessments of its value.
Attending to survivor accounts allows for a deeper understanding of
the entwining of home, recovery, and insurance, and suggests the need to
understand both the value and the cost of insurance in more than monetary
terms. In making assessments both of the value of insurance, and of the
insurability of belongings, disaster survivors do not always position or configure insurance as a purely financial mechanism. Rather, the value or cost
of insurance is assessed in more than monetary terms, in which negative
impacts on wellbeing, the loss of time, and the nonfinancial value of belongings, each often take priority. In other words, amid the emotional complexity of recovery processes, the value of insurance is what people make it.
Below, we outline our case study sites and methods. In order to explore
questions of insurance and ‘value’ in more than monetary terms, we have
then divided our analysis into three sections. First, we explore impacts
of insurance on survivor wellbeing. We consider how bushfire survivors
assessed the value of insurance based both on the emotional and the financial support they received. Second, we consider the insurability of material
belongings within the home, and explore tensions between the value of an
object as assessed by an insurer and a bushfire survivor respectively. Finally,
we examine how bushfire survivors prioritised intangible and uninsurable
objects, such as time and labour, in ways that challenge ideas of insurable
value. In each case, we highlight the agency of bushfire survivors in actively
assessing the value of insurance, particularly as it relates to how bushfire
and insurance affected the absence and presence of home – materially and
emotionally.
Case studies and methods
We draw on qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with bushfire survivors in two case study sites in New South Wales, Australia. The Blue
Mountains and Kangaroo Valley are both fire-prone areas, and both
have a history of damaging bushfires. In October 2013, bushfires in the
Blue Mountains, on the western outskirts of the Greater Sydney region,
destroyed 203 houses and damaged a further 286. Fourteen semi-structured
interviews with 17 Blue Mountains residents (including three couples) were
conducted four years after the fires, in late 2017 and early 2018. During the
summer of 2019-2020, bushfires of unprecedented scale burnt across massive
areas of south-east Australia, destroying 2,439 homes in New South Wales
and resulting in the death of 33 people and a billion animals (Hughes et al.
2020). This included parts of the Blue Mountains as well as the Shoalhaven