Introduction 5
Section 3, ‘Fire’, begins with another study that draws on interviews with
residents in at-risk places and again brings attention to the fallibility of insurance logics – in this case, in the fire-prone Blue Mountains and Kangaroo
Valley of New South Wales, Australia. Scott McKinnon, Christine Eriksen,
and Eliza de Vet unsettle hegemonic discourses pertaining to the presence
and absence of insurance – frequently represented as a normative dichotomy
between having insurance (good) and not having insurance (bad). In examining the idea of value, McKinnon and colleagues observe that in the eyes
of bushfire survivors, adequate insurance coverage is defined in more than
monetary terms, and that time and emotional and physical labour are key
currencies to recovery beyond the financial possibilities of insurance. The
notion of adequate insurance is thus dependent on socio-cultural context.
Kenneth Klein also delves into the adequacy and availability of insurance in fire-prone landscapes in Australia and the United States, posing
the question, ‘as climate change continues, is fire insurable?’ He argues
that even now when insurance for wildfire remains broadly accessible and
most households want to be insured and many assume they are adequately
covered, despite best intentions, most are not. Klein observes that there is
no publicly available data on what and how insurers know about adequate
levels of cover in the face of fire and, problematically, the onus for underinsurance lies with the householder. Opening with the ongoing ramifications
of the Grenfell Tower fire in London, Pat O’Malley similarly critiques the
institutional configurations that constitute flammability, technical error,
and insurance. Drawing on a case study of fire/building politics in Australia
that followed the Grenfell incident, he reflects upon the international conglomerates, including construction and insurance industries, that inform
and influence the debate. Specifically, O’Malley presents a critique of the
concept of sustainability that is frequently mobilised unproblematically in
decision-making, yet carries a level of complexity that undermines coherent
responses with subsequent implications for insurance and insurability.
In the penultimate Section 4, ‘Air’ is the element in focus. Zac Taylor
analyses insurance-linked securitisation as constituted through hurricane
wind risk in Florida, United States and risk-brokers in Singapore. As a pivotal part of this evolving relational network, re/insurance faces ‘headwinds’
of change – the risk of sea-level rise to Florida’s coastal communities, the
economic sustainability of Singapore’s financial sector, and the tenability of
long-term insurability. Yet, this sector remains a powerful force in defining
and managing climate uncertainty – at least for now. Networks of global
finance often remain abstruse for those living with risks on a day-to-day
basis, and in the next chapter, Nick Osbaldiston provides an account of how
households in cyclone-prone northern Australia make sense of insurance.
Residents express a range of emotions that complicate and at times contradict and obscure hegemonic financial discourses and the framing of customers as rational and calculating. For some, a desire to insure acts in concert
with feelings of mistrust in insurers and leads to decisions to insure that are
Section 3, ‘Fire’, begins with another study that draws on interviews with
residents in at-risk places and again brings attention to the fallibility of insurance logics – in this case, in the fire-prone Blue Mountains and Kangaroo
Valley of New South Wales, Australia. Scott McKinnon, Christine Eriksen,
and Eliza de Vet unsettle hegemonic discourses pertaining to the presence
and absence of insurance – frequently represented as a normative dichotomy
between having insurance (good) and not having insurance (bad). In examining the idea of value, McKinnon and colleagues observe that in the eyes
of bushfire survivors, adequate insurance coverage is defined in more than
monetary terms, and that time and emotional and physical labour are key
currencies to recovery beyond the financial possibilities of insurance. The
notion of adequate insurance is thus dependent on socio-cultural context.
Kenneth Klein also delves into the adequacy and availability of insurance in fire-prone landscapes in Australia and the United States, posing
the question, ‘as climate change continues, is fire insurable?’ He argues
that even now when insurance for wildfire remains broadly accessible and
most households want to be insured and many assume they are adequately
covered, despite best intentions, most are not. Klein observes that there is
no publicly available data on what and how insurers know about adequate
levels of cover in the face of fire and, problematically, the onus for underinsurance lies with the householder. Opening with the ongoing ramifications
of the Grenfell Tower fire in London, Pat O’Malley similarly critiques the
institutional configurations that constitute flammability, technical error,
and insurance. Drawing on a case study of fire/building politics in Australia
that followed the Grenfell incident, he reflects upon the international conglomerates, including construction and insurance industries, that inform
and influence the debate. Specifically, O’Malley presents a critique of the
concept of sustainability that is frequently mobilised unproblematically in
decision-making, yet carries a level of complexity that undermines coherent
responses with subsequent implications for insurance and insurability.
In the penultimate Section 4, ‘Air’ is the element in focus. Zac Taylor
analyses insurance-linked securitisation as constituted through hurricane
wind risk in Florida, United States and risk-brokers in Singapore. As a pivotal part of this evolving relational network, re/insurance faces ‘headwinds’
of change – the risk of sea-level rise to Florida’s coastal communities, the
economic sustainability of Singapore’s financial sector, and the tenability of
long-term insurability. Yet, this sector remains a powerful force in defining
and managing climate uncertainty – at least for now. Networks of global
finance often remain abstruse for those living with risks on a day-to-day
basis, and in the next chapter, Nick Osbaldiston provides an account of how
households in cyclone-prone northern Australia make sense of insurance.
Residents express a range of emotions that complicate and at times contradict and obscure hegemonic financial discourses and the framing of customers as rational and calculating. For some, a desire to insure acts in concert
with feelings of mistrust in insurers and leads to decisions to insure that are