The concepts and practices of risk management, honed by actuaries and CFOs over the past century, increasingly pervade the daily lives of global citizens, shaping our political subjectivities and framing the policy choices structuring our society and economy. One emerging response to the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, has been a suggestion that all citizens be provided with a personal “risk budget,” thereby individualizing responsibility for maintaining social distancing protocols and potentially depoliticizing the difficult choices that must be made to simultaneously protect public health and economic activity. Ulrich Beck’s work on the intertwined nature of individualization and risk in contemporary society has shed theoretical light on such questions, but in this panel we seek to use our empirical research to develop a richer historical understanding of how policies, institutions, and technologies have aimed to transform broad sociopolitical concerns into matters of individual risk management. Our empirical studies range widely, from the early 20th century to the early 21st century, covering the business of American empire, race relations in real estate, the student loan industry, gendered approaches to risk in banking and finance, and technologies of financialization in agribusiness.
We have two core aims with this session. First, we want to highlight the work of emerging scholars. Half of the panelists are either completing Ph.D.s or have recently finished their degree programs (Bunker, Schwartz, and Wiggins). Three of the panelists have new books either just published or about to be published on the topic (Horan, Shermer, Wiggins). Second, we intend to use the “virtual” nature of the 2021 conference to our advantage. Each panelist will present a very short—no more than 7 minutes—talk, primarily aimed at starting a wider conversation on the topic. We intend to use interactive technologies, such as chats, whiteboards or editable documents, and polling features, to integrate the audience as much as possible into the discussion. Rather than having talks followed by formal comments followed by questions, we imagine a lively and engaging session where we probe big ideas in a collaborative fashion.