A Critical Review of Disaster-Related Finance: From Insurance to Environmental Management and Assessment

• In Event: 3555 - Section on the Political Economy of the World-System Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 2. Environmental Disaster, Power, and Conflict

Abstract

This paper is a critical review of disaster-related finance, its actors, and practices. The goal is to illustrate how financialization influences adaptation, mitigation, and resilience both in theory and practice. As such, I illustrate how disaster preparedness and recovery initiatives are deeply intertwined financial capitalism. For instance, the financial sector plays a role in real-estate, affecting where and how we build cities, and whether buildings are insured. In turn, finance is both a cause and consequence for the persistence of systemic disaster risk. This paper, begins with a discussion of the insurance sector and the development of financial instruments that distribute risk into the marketplace. Second, it looks at the rise of proprietary data and catastrophe models that support the disaster-industrial-complex. Third, it examines and criticizes international environmental and disaster assessment standards.

Author

• Albert S. Fu, Kutztown University