Monday, January 4, 2010

O'Malley on Imagining Insurance: Risk, Thirft and Life Insurance in Britain

Imagining Insurance: Risk, Thrift and Life Insurance in Britain has just been posted by Pat O'Malley, University of Sydney - Faculty of Law. It appeared in EMBRACING RISK, T. Baker, J. Simon, eds. (University of Chicago Press, 2002). Here's the abstract:
The genealogy of risk is closely linked with the development of insurance, which in turn is linked to changes in the forms of political liberalism. This paper examines shifts in this triangular relationship from the early 19th century to the present, and argues that risk has changed its forms and functions in ways that reflect its movement to centre stage at the intersection of capital and political governance.