2 K Booth
As we show in this book, insurance is also elemental – it is co-constituted
within the dynamic entwining of earth, water, air, fire, and, what we propose as a fifth element, ‘big’ data.
The shifting ontological terrain that is insurance is reflected in diversification of epistemological approaches in insurance research. The methods
employed include the qualitative and discursive, as well as quantitative,
and as we see this diversity as representing the ‘bricolage qualities’ of insurance (French & Kneale 2015, p. 17), an objective of this book is inclusivity.
Insurance takes on different forms through different epistemological
practices, and its constitution is spatially and temporally variegated. Thus,
the 14 standalone chapters in this book provide representations of different
insurances embodying dynamic and unbounded places, technologies, and
networks.
To find cohesion in this multiplicity, through the book we follow two narrative threads. One is ontological – we trace how insurance realities constitute and are constituted through the elements of earth, water, air, fire, and
‘big’ data. In the creation and evolution of insurance technologies, these elements are configured into forms that fit hegemonic insurance logics. Each
is rendered calculable and potentially predictable, stripped of amorphous,
mysterious, and spiritual qualities frequently associated with each in other
times and other places. Earth becomes soil moisture, water is delineated by
volume and flow, air is reduced to wind speed and temperature, fire is defined
by frequency and severity. ‘Big’ data congeals as information and fact after
being scrutinised and cleaned to remove mishaps and inconsistencies emergent in everyday life and through technological glitches and limitations. In
turn, insurance itself is constituted through these elements because despite
the power and prowess of insurance logics, these dynamic and unbounded
elements exert force in the design and implementation of insurance technologies. These, at times, wild elements constitute ideas of insurability and
non-insurability with excess – excessive wind, rain, temperature – in part
determining where the capacities and limitations of insurance may lie. Or,
more obviously, the need for certain types of insurance at all.
The other narrative thread is epistemological. In relation to insurance, we
loosely map these elements onto different spatialities – earth and Kantian
space (Ingold 2008), air and forgotten space (Irigaray 1999), water and
fluid space, fire and fire space (Law & Mol 2001), and ‘big’ data and spatial
imaginaries (Lobo-Guerrero 2014; Watkins 2015). Mobilising or recognising different spatialities can provide new insights, specifically the multiple,
sometimes conflicting, realities of insurance (Booth 2021). For example, the
idea of fluid space can lead to articulations pertaining to the internal dynamics of insurance. Insurance technologies evolve over time (Ewald 1991), they
are variously constituted in different places (Booth & Kendal 2020), and the
same type of insurance – even a single insurance policy – is variously constituted through both time and space through emotions, morality, and place.
As Booth (2021, p. 1306) observes, such dynamism,
As we show in this book, insurance is also elemental – it is co-constituted
within the dynamic entwining of earth, water, air, fire, and, what we propose as a fifth element, ‘big’ data.
The shifting ontological terrain that is insurance is reflected in diversification of epistemological approaches in insurance research. The methods
employed include the qualitative and discursive, as well as quantitative,
and as we see this diversity as representing the ‘bricolage qualities’ of insurance (French & Kneale 2015, p. 17), an objective of this book is inclusivity.
Insurance takes on different forms through different epistemological
practices, and its constitution is spatially and temporally variegated. Thus,
the 14 standalone chapters in this book provide representations of different
insurances embodying dynamic and unbounded places, technologies, and
networks.
To find cohesion in this multiplicity, through the book we follow two narrative threads. One is ontological – we trace how insurance realities constitute and are constituted through the elements of earth, water, air, fire, and
‘big’ data. In the creation and evolution of insurance technologies, these elements are configured into forms that fit hegemonic insurance logics. Each
is rendered calculable and potentially predictable, stripped of amorphous,
mysterious, and spiritual qualities frequently associated with each in other
times and other places. Earth becomes soil moisture, water is delineated by
volume and flow, air is reduced to wind speed and temperature, fire is defined
by frequency and severity. ‘Big’ data congeals as information and fact after
being scrutinised and cleaned to remove mishaps and inconsistencies emergent in everyday life and through technological glitches and limitations. In
turn, insurance itself is constituted through these elements because despite
the power and prowess of insurance logics, these dynamic and unbounded
elements exert force in the design and implementation of insurance technologies. These, at times, wild elements constitute ideas of insurability and
non-insurability with excess – excessive wind, rain, temperature – in part
determining where the capacities and limitations of insurance may lie. Or,
more obviously, the need for certain types of insurance at all.
The other narrative thread is epistemological. In relation to insurance, we
loosely map these elements onto different spatialities – earth and Kantian
space (Ingold 2008), air and forgotten space (Irigaray 1999), water and
fluid space, fire and fire space (Law & Mol 2001), and ‘big’ data and spatial
imaginaries (Lobo-Guerrero 2014; Watkins 2015). Mobilising or recognising different spatialities can provide new insights, specifically the multiple,
sometimes conflicting, realities of insurance (Booth 2021). For example, the
idea of fluid space can lead to articulations pertaining to the internal dynamics of insurance. Insurance technologies evolve over time (Ewald 1991), they
are variously constituted in different places (Booth & Kendal 2020), and the
same type of insurance – even a single insurance policy – is variously constituted through both time and space through emotions, morality, and place.
As Booth (2021, p. 1306) observes, such dynamism,