Profiteering from Disaster: Why Planners Need to be Paying More Attention to Insurance |
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Authors: | Kate Booth |
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Institution: | Geography and Spatial Science, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia |
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Abstract: | Insurance is overlooked in planning practice and research. Focusing on house and contents insurance in Australia’s disaster-prone areas, I describe why the impacts of insurance availability and pricing on urban form requires greater attention from planners. With increasing climate change-related risks, the growing influence of insurance and insurers is exacerbating social and financial inequity: fostering disadvantaged enclaves and protected pockets of wealth, and sustaining insurer profits. I call for the better integration of insurance within planning, particularly a more considered and careful mobilization of insurance in disaster preparation. I present four research questions for advancing planning in disaster-prone urban areas. |
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Keywords: | Disasters climate change housing insurance financialization |
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