80 C Lucas and T Young
owners utilised insurance coverage to update properties and increase rental
income, turning temporary relocation to permanent displacement for some
renters. This produced more financially resilient landlords and neighbourhoods, while increasingly vulnerable tenants carried a heavier financial burden without key social assets. In Houston, this meant that lower- income
households were more easily displaced and replaced with people who better
fit the new resilience aesthetic. Hobart’s already middle-class neighbourhoods affected by the floods were at less risk of gentrification, but the Hobart
case shows how other forms of disadvantage are exacerbated by insurance
experiences.
For governments managing residential landscapes of high climatic risk,
whether they be floodplains, areas prone to wildfire, erosion, heatwaves, or
storms, it is increasingly important to develop adaptive and equitable forms
of disaster resilience (Grove et al. 2020). It should not be assumed that insurance alone is sufficient for this complex and dynamic social, psychological,
and material process. While supporting financial resilience is vital in mitigation and recovery settings, recognising the contextual elements of resilience, including householders’ diverse capacities to manage the insurance
process, is paramount in making insurantial experience and the broader
recovery process more accessible and equitable. Insurers themselves should
also consider the importance of transparency and fairness in ensuring their
public legitimacy and social license into the future.
Note
1 Many of the interviews in the Houston case occurred during communityrebuilding events. Quotes are taken from field notes and are based on multiple
conversations with affected homeowners and renters.
References
Adger, W.N, Quinn, T, Lorenzoni, I et al. 2013, ‘Changing social contracts in
climate-change adaptation’, Nature Climate Change, vol. 3, pp. 330–333.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) 2019, Northern
Australia Insurance Inquiry Second Update Report,
second-interim-report>.
Blake, E.S, & Zelinsky, D.A 2018, National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone
Report: Hurricane Harvey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
.
Booth, K & Harwood, A 2016 ‘Insurance as catastrophe: A geography of house and
contents insurance in bushfire-prone places’, Geoforum, vol. 69, pp. 44–52.
Booth, K & Tranter, B 2017, ‘When disaster strikes: Under-insurance in Australian
households’, Urban Studies, vol. 55, no. 14, pp. 3135–3150.
Box P, Bird D, Haynes K, King D 2016, ‘Shared responsibility and social
vulnerability in the 2011 Brisbane flood’, Natural Hazards, vol. 81,
pp. 1549–1568.
owners utilised insurance coverage to update properties and increase rental
income, turning temporary relocation to permanent displacement for some
renters. This produced more financially resilient landlords and neighbourhoods, while increasingly vulnerable tenants carried a heavier financial burden without key social assets. In Houston, this meant that lower- income
households were more easily displaced and replaced with people who better
fit the new resilience aesthetic. Hobart’s already middle-class neighbourhoods affected by the floods were at less risk of gentrification, but the Hobart
case shows how other forms of disadvantage are exacerbated by insurance
experiences.
For governments managing residential landscapes of high climatic risk,
whether they be floodplains, areas prone to wildfire, erosion, heatwaves, or
storms, it is increasingly important to develop adaptive and equitable forms
of disaster resilience (Grove et al. 2020). It should not be assumed that insurance alone is sufficient for this complex and dynamic social, psychological,
and material process. While supporting financial resilience is vital in mitigation and recovery settings, recognising the contextual elements of resilience, including householders’ diverse capacities to manage the insurance
process, is paramount in making insurantial experience and the broader
recovery process more accessible and equitable. Insurers themselves should
also consider the importance of transparency and fairness in ensuring their
public legitimacy and social license into the future.
Note
1 Many of the interviews in the Houston case occurred during communityrebuilding events. Quotes are taken from field notes and are based on multiple
conversations with affected homeowners and renters.
References
Adger, W.N, Quinn, T, Lorenzoni, I et al. 2013, ‘Changing social contracts in
climate-change adaptation’, Nature Climate Change, vol. 3, pp. 330–333.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) 2019, Northern
Australia Insurance Inquiry Second Update Report,
second-interim-report>.
Blake, E.S, & Zelinsky, D.A 2018, National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone
Report: Hurricane Harvey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
Booth, K & Harwood, A 2016 ‘Insurance as catastrophe: A geography of house and
contents insurance in bushfire-prone places’, Geoforum, vol. 69, pp. 44–52.
Booth, K & Tranter, B 2017, ‘When disaster strikes: Under-insurance in Australian
households’, Urban Studies, vol. 55, no. 14, pp. 3135–3150.
Box P, Bird D, Haynes K, King D 2016, ‘Shared responsibility and social
vulnerability in the 2011 Brisbane flood’, Natural Hazards, vol. 81,
pp. 1549–1568.