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Social Science General

Insurance as Governance

by (author) Dean Barry, Aaron Doyle & Diana Ericson

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2003
Category
General, General, Risk Assessment & Management
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780802085740
    Publish Date
    Jul 2003
    List Price
    $61.00
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802037282
    Publish Date
    Jul 2003
    List Price
    $107.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442676220
    Publish Date
    Jun 2003
    List Price
    $105.00

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Description

Insurance as Governance is the first major sociological study of the insurance industry. It examines how the industry controls our institutions and daily lives in ways that are largely invisible, and how it thereby functions as a form of government beyond the state.

Drawing on extensive ethnographic research on industry practices, the work penetrates the complexities of the insurance industry and demonstrates why it is such a powerful and pervasive institution. The authors advance the concept of moral risk as they consider how insurance companies partner with governments and corporations in the negotiation of economic policy.

In effect, Insurance as Governance documents liberal theory at work. It offers a major case study of liberal governance beyond the state and explores such larger issues as how insurance is increasingly liberal rather than welfarist in orientation, and how insurance is the vanguard of liberalization in governance throughout postindustrial societies. Wide-ranging in scope and original in approach, the text provides a sophisticated integration of empirical data and theoretical approaches relating to insurance, risk, governance, and security.

 

About the authors

Dean Barry is Policy Research and Development Officer, Citizenship and Immigration, Government of Canada.

Dean Barry's profile page

Aaron Doyle is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carlton University.

Aaron Doyle's profile page

The late Richard V. Ericson was Principal of Green College, University of British Columbia, a centre for interndisciplinary scholarship and graduate education.

Diana Ericson's profile page