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Item Details
Title:
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UNCERTAIN BUSINESS
RISK, INSURANCE, AND THE LIMITS OF KNOWLEDGE |
By: |
Richard V. Ericson, Professor Aaron Doyle |
Format: |
Hardback |
List price:
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£56.00 |
Our price: |
£50.40 |
Discount: |
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You save:
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£5.60 |
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ISBN 10: |
0802087590 |
ISBN 13: |
9780802087591 |
Availability: |
Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.
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Stock: |
Currently 0 available |
Publisher: |
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS |
Pub. date: |
5 March, 2004 |
Pages: |
335 |
Description: |
Insurers' perceptions and decisions about uncertainty - with potential for windfall profits as well as catastrophic losses - create crises in insurance availability and provoke new forms of inequality and exclusion. Hence, while the insurance industry is a central bulwark against uncertainty, insurers also play a key role in fostering it. |
Synopsis: |
We live in an age of increasing doubt about whether our institutions and technologies can provide security against risks, many of which they themselves have created. Uncertain Business is an unprecedented inquiry into insurance industry practices and what they tell us about risks and uncertainties in contemporary society. The core of the book is ethnographic studies in distinct fields of insurance: premature death, disability, earthquake, and terrorism. These studies reveal that uncertainty pervades different fields of insurance, the very industry that is charged with transforming uncertainty into manageable risk. Scientific data on risk are variously absent, inadequate, controversial, contradictory, and ignored. Insurers impose meaning on uncertainty through non-scientific forms of knowledge that are intuitive, emotional, aesthetic, moral, and speculative. Nevertheless, the nature of uncertainty and the response to it varies substantially across the fields studied, showing how contemporary society is characterized by competing risk logics.Insurers' perceptions and decisions about uncertainty - with potential for windfall profits as well as catastrophic losses - create crises in insurance availability and provoke new forms of inequality and exclusion. Hence, while the insurance industry is a central bulwark against uncertainty, insurers also play a key role in fostering it. |
Illustrations: |
Illustrations |
Publication: |
Canada |
Imprint: |
University of Toronto Press |
Returns: |
Returnable |
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Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr
A celebratory, inclusive and educational exploration of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr for both children that celebrate and children who want to understand and appreciate their peers who do.
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