Published
28 Apr 2023Page count
208 pagesISBN
978-1529221350Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
28 Apr 2023Page count
208 pagesISBN
978-1529221367Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
28 Apr 2023Page count
208 pagesISBN
978-1529221367Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University Press
Dealing in Uncertainty
Insurance is an important – if still poorly understood – mechanism for dealing with a broad variety of risks associated with modern life.
This book conducts an in-depth examination of one of the largest and longest-established private insurance industries in Europe: British life insurance. In doing so, it draws on over 40 oral history interviews to trace how the sector has changed since the 1970s, a period characterized by rampant financialization and neoliberalization.
Combining insights from science and technology studies and economic sociology, this is an unprecedented study of the evolution of insurance practices and an invaluable contribution to our understanding of financial capitalism.
"Dealing in Uncertainty makes a major contribution to the history and sociology of insurance. Van der Heide masterfully explains the financialization of the British life insurance industry and the concurrent transformation of the actuarial profession as a process that replaced calculation and expertise with models and markets." Tom Baker, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Arjen van der Heide is Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research. He previously obtained his PhD at the University of Edinburgh and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne.
Chapter 1: Life Insurance in the Age of Finance
Chapter 2: Financialization, Quantification and Evaluation
Chapter 3: Shifting Boundaries between Insurance and Finance
Chapter 4: Actuaries Going on a Random Walk
Chapter 5: ‘Authors of Their Own Misfortune’
Chapter 6: ‘Taking Account of What the Market Has To Say’
Chapter 7: Managing Risk in Insurance
Chapter 8: The Long Road to Solvency II (and Back Again?)
Chapter 9: De-Risking Pensions, Managing Assets
Chapter 10: Financial Evaluation and the Future of Insurance Society
References
