Underwater: Loss, Flood Insurance, and the Moral Economy of Climate Change in the United States (Society and the Environment)

Communities around the United States face the threat of being underwater. This is not only a matter of rising waters reaching the doorstep. It is also the threat of being financially underwater, owning assets worth less than the money borrowed to obtain them. Many areas around the country may become economically uninhabitable before they become physically unlivable.\nIn Underwater, Rebecca Elliott explores how families, communities, and governments confront problems of loss as the climate changes. She offers the first in-depth account of the politics and social effects of the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which provides flood insurance protection for virtually all homes and small businesses that require it. In doing so, the NFIP turns the risk of flooding into an immediate economic reality, shaping who lives on the waterfront, on what terms, and at what cost.\nDrawing on archival, interview, ethnographic, and other documentary data, Elliott follows controversies over the NFIP from its establishment in the 1960s to the present, from local backlash over flood maps to Congressional debates over insurance reform. Though flood insurance is often portrayed as a rational solution for managing risk, it has ignited recurring fights over what is fair and valuable, what needs protecting and what should be let go, who deserves assistance and on what terms, and whose expectations of future losses are used to govern the present. An incisive and comprehensive consideration of the fundamental dilemmas of moral economy underlying insurance, Underwater sheds new light on how Americans cope with loss as the water rises.

Business & Money

Elliott, Rebecca

Economics

Columbia University Press

Product Description 
Communities around the United States face the threat of being underwater. This is not only a matter of rising waters reaching the doorstep. It is also the threat of being financially underwater, owning assets worth less than the money borrowed to obtain them. Many areas around the country may become economically uninhabitable before they become physically unlivable.\nIn 
Underwater, Rebecca Elliott explores how families, communities, and governments confront problems of loss as the climate changes. She offers the first in-depth account of the politics and social effects of the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which provides flood insurance protection for virtually all homes and small businesses that require it. In doing so, the NFIP turns the risk of flooding into an immediate economic reality, shaping who lives on the waterfront, on what terms, and at what cost.\nDrawing on archival, interview, ethnographic, and other documentary data, Elliott follows controversies over the NFIP from its establishment in the 1960s to the present, from local backlash over flood maps to Congressional debates over insurance reform. Though flood insurance is often portrayed as a rational solution for managing risk, it has ignited recurring fights over what is fair and valuable, what needs protecting and what should be let go, who deserves assistance and on what terms, and whose expectations of future losses are used to govern the present. An incisive and comprehensive consideration of the fundamental dilemmas of moral economy underlying insurance, 
Underwater sheds new light on how Americans cope with loss as the water rises. 
 Review 
In this essential book, Rebecca Elliott narrates the history of the individualization of risk through an unlikely lens: the de-mutualization of flood insurance in the United States. As rising global temperatures wreak havoc on the climate, those living in the path of storms are increasingly left to deal with the consequences on their own. This is a rich and deeply human story about people and organizations going underwater, learning to make sense of loss and to become ‘resilient’―until the next wave. -- Marion Fourcade, author of 
Economists and Societies: Discipline and Profession in the United States, Britain, and France, 1890s to 1990s\nUnderwater is a masterpiece of social and historical analysis, revealing the increasingly powerful and contested role of the insurance industry―through its rationalities, technologies, and moral economy―in an age of climate crisis. It opens on the impossible decision so many of us facing climate-driven catastrophes in the places we live must now make: to retreat or to remain. As Elliot shows in incisive, often painful detail, these decisions force us to reckon with multiple forms of loss―some measured in our ties to buildings, communities, landscapes, and ways of life, others in the dollar amounts of our insurance coverage and housing investments. These vital reckonings, meanwhile, differ depending on where we live, whether we own our homes, and how 'deserving' we are perceived to be―all variables profoundly shaped by race and class. Elliott compellingly situates these struggles within an emergent 'politics of loss'―itself the flip-side of ever more inadequate politics of sustainability. Disparities and precarities driven both by policy and escalating hazard have ushered in an engaged, often enraged 'climate public,' and wrought havoc in the insurance industry itself. Through this brilliant, moving, and elegantly written analysis, we see a space opening for radical reimagining. What if we reject the devolution of risk and individualizing logics of insurance and housing markets, and recognize our collective interdependence? Elliott leaves us with a crucial understanding: there can be no safer ground if we go it alone. -- Miriam Greenberg, coauthor of 
Crisis Cities: Disaster and Redevelopment in New York and New Orleans\nIn this lucidly

Pretty Funny

Literature & Fiction

Humor & Satire

Penguin

I feel a thought forming in my head like a fart brewing in my stomach. And my thought fart is...\nI'm gonna start a YouTube channel!\nWe have a plan. Hopefully nothing will randomly decide to mess with that plan like, oh I dunno, MY COMPLETE BUM HOLE OF A DAD COMING BACK AND FILLING OUR LIVES WITH CHAOS.\nYou know Haylah Swinton - she's big, bold and funnier than a cat in a onesie playing the bagpipes. She's been busy proving she's as a kick-butt comedian, she's got herself a fab boyfriend called Dylan, the best girl crew in the world totally have her back, her little brother isn't driving her totally nuts, and did she mention she has a boyfriend called Dylan? Yes, THAT Dylan.\nBut this proving-she's-funny thing is kind of tough sometimes. And come to think of it, Dylan isn't acting particularly boyfriendly at the moment. Plus her pathetic excuse for a dad has decided to turn up and make everything confusing.\nAs if real life wasn't complicated enough, when Haylah sets up her own comedy YouTube channel, she finds out that online life can be a whole other can of trolls...\nPrepare to snort, guffaw (and cringe) your way through the second hilarious story about pretty funny Haylah Swinton!

Pretty Rude (Private)

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

This adorable early chapter book series is perfect for young girls who love friendship stories starring animal characters! This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line called Branches, which is aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow! Eva Wingdale gets in over her head when she offers to organize a spring festival at school. Even with her best friend Lucy's help, there is NO way she will get everything done in time. Will Eva have to ask Sue (a.k.a. Meanie McMeanerson) for help? Or will the festival have to be cancelled? This book is written as Eva's diary -- with Rebecca Elliott's owl-dorable full-color illustrations throughout!

Eva's Treetop Festival: A Branches Book (Owl Diaries #1) (1)

Children's Books

Animals

Scholastic. Inc.

This adorable early chapter book series is perfect for young girls who love friendship stories starring animal characters! This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line called Branches, which is aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow! Eva Wingdale gets in over her head when she offers to organize a spring festival at school. Even with her best friend Lucy's help, there is NO way she will get everything done in time. Will Eva have to ask Sue (a.k.a. Meanie McMeanerson) for help? Or will the festival have to be cancelled? This book is written as Eva's diary -- with Rebecca Elliott's owl-dorable full-color illustrations throughout!

Is there a ghost in Treetopolis? Eva sure thinks so! This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line called Branches, which is aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow! In this second book in the series, Eva sees a ghost! Or at least, she thinks she does . . . With her friend Lucy by her side, Eva goes in search of the ghost. Eek! This owl-dorable series will appeal to girls who love stories about animals and friendship!

Eva Sees a Ghost: A Branches Book (Owl Diaries #2)

Is there a ghost in Treetopolis? Eva sure thinks so! This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line called Branches, which is aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow! In this second book in the series, Eva sees a ghost! Or at least, she thinks she does . . . With her friend Lucy by her side, Eva goes in search of the ghost. Eek! This owl-dorable series will appeal to girls who love stories about animals and friendship!

This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line called Branches, which is aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow! Eva's teacher, Miss Featherbottom, is getting married. All of her students have been invited to the wedding. And Eva starts a Secret Wedding Planners Club! But before Miss Featherbottom walks down the aisle, her necklace goes missing. Eva wants to help! She quickly turns her Wedding Planners Club into a Detectives Club. Can Eva track down the missing necklace before Miss Featherbottom's wedding is ruined?

A Woodland Wedding: A Branches Book (Owl Diaries #3) (3)

Eva's teacher is getting married--and the whole class is invited to the wedding! This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line called Branches, which is aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow! Eva's teacher, Miss Featherbottom, is getting married. All of her students have been invited to the wedding. And Eva starts a Secret Wedding Planners Club! But before Miss Featherbottom walks down the aisle, her necklace goes missing. Eva wants to help! She quickly turns her Wedding Planners Club into a Detectives Club. Can Eva track down the missing necklace before Miss Featherbottom's wedding is ruined?

A Woodland Wedding: A Branches Book (Owl Diaries)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Elliott, Rebecca. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Elliott, Rebecca

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Elliott, Rebecca. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Underwater: Loss, Flood Insurance, and the Moral Economy of Climate Change in the United States (Society and the Environment)

Underwater: Loss, Flood Insurance, and the Moral Economy of Climate Change in the United States (Society and the Environment)

Pretty Funny

Pretty Rude (Private)

Eva's Treetop Festival: A Branches Book (Owl Diaries #1) (1)

Eva's Treetop Festival: A Branches Book (Owl Diaries #1) (1)

Eva Sees a Ghost: A Branches Book (Owl Diaries #2)

Eva Sees a Ghost: A Branches Book (Owl Diaries #2)

A Woodland Wedding: A Branches Book (Owl Diaries #3) (3)

A Woodland Wedding: A Branches Book (Owl Diaries)