‘Uncertainty Makes Us Free:’ Risk, Insurance and Freedom

Abstract:     
Uncertainty, especially through the techniques of foresight, prudence and enterprise, has been essential to liberal rationalities of freedom. The 'free' market, the vision of 'free' subjects creating their own futures, the idea of 'free' spirits making the most of opportunities - all these imply an uncertain world. Such liberal visions see a probabilistically calculable future as compromising freedom, implying a planned world at odds with the 'open society.' Yet liberalism also relies on expertise linked to a modernist rationality of government that seeks to render the future scientifically calculable and thus 'more free.' The resulting tension is braided throughout the genealogy of liberalism and arguably has shaped its various historical forms. In this paper this tension is explored through the place of insurance in various historical configurations of liberal governance. In turn, this suggests ways in which the category of 'uncertainty' - so prominent in the politics of the risk society - needs to be thought through with more precision than is usually the case in current theory

Number of Pages in PDF File: 30

Keywords: risk, uncertainty, liberalism, freedom, governmentality, security

JEL Classification: K10, K30

Accepted Paper Series