Sociology seminar – Thursdays

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm 
Date: 2nd April 2024
Place: room 3105

ZOOM LINK: https://zoom.us/j/97751150432?pwd=NUpGdDg1OW9uSFNxZWNxUTR0ZjRNUT09

Rebecca ELLIOTT – Losing Ground: Values at Risk and the Social Life of Climate Change

Abstract:

How do families, communities, and governments confront problems of loss–both experienced and anticipated–as the climate changes? The talk will explore this question through an investigation of the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), specifically the operations of its key risk technology: the flood map. Like other risk technologies, which are ubiquitous as decision-making and planning tools, the map disseminates information about value and risk in order to tame uncertainty and enable prudent action oriented toward the future. However, drawing together interview, ethnographic, and documentary data, I find that for its users on the ground, the map does not simply measure ‘value at risk’ in ways that produce clear strategies for protecting property values from flooding. Instead, it puts values–beyond simply the financial worth of places–at risk, as well as implicates past, present, and future risks beyond simply flooding. By informing and enlarging the stakes of what needs protecting, and from what, I argue that plural and interacting ‘values at risk’ shape how people live with and respond to climate-related losses.

Organizers: Annina Cleasson, Paola Tubaro, Patrick Präg (CREST Sociology unit)

Sponsors: CREST