Picturing how life insurance matters. The object(ive)s of private insurance

Transcription

1 Picturing how life insurance matters The object(ive)s of private insurance Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen Moral symmetry and material agency Workshop, Helsinki School of Economics September 2009

2 Research project Background: Finland , the simultaneous expansion of consumer cultures and Nordic welfare systems. How have people been encouraged to engage themselves in voluntary forms of insurance? How has the sense of security been commodified? How have the dreams of good life been commodified?

3 Following the advertisers Insurance as technique is abstract how to concretise its significance? Promotional material, together with the insurance agent, is one of the main interfaces between the company and the customer. Advertising as packaging: capturing the commodity, captivating the customer.

4 How does life insurance matter? Research questions while reading the advertisements: what does a thing do, what is it capable of? how does it resist? how can it be manipulated? what can it be attached to? how does it affect the things it is attached to? how enduring are the attachments and links?

5 What do You need to calculate with your insurance agent? (Suomi 1963)

6 When was the last time you had your insurance coverage measured? (Kansa 1987)

7 Security for child insurance policy (Suomi 1962)

8 Children s parents (Kullervo 1968)

9 Which profession will he have chosen 20 years from now? (Kaleva 1958)

10 They are waiting for You... (Salama 1950)

11 EXPENSES These amounts are needed after the decease of the head of household INCOME (Suomi 1965)

12 Security given by social insurance Additional need Overall need What will I leave behind for them? (Suomi 1968)

13 Social insurance gives only partial coverage (Pohja 1969)

14 2 alternatives The responsibility for the family s livelyhood is left for the mother. The care for the family s livelyhood is shared with hundreds of thousands of persons with life insurance. (Salama 1967)

15 All for one and one for all (the principle of life insurance) (Salama 1967)

16 Teamwork is the basis of our operations (Eläke-Varma 1990s)

17 The new modern insurance from the Suomi-company keeping up with the speed of our times (Suomi 1968)

18 Compose a solution that is fit for your life situation and for your needs. Tapiola individual insurance policies (Tapiola 1987)

19 Efekti helps you to reach your goals (Tapiola 1987)

20 What is life insurance made of? Text Pictures Insurance agents Potential customers Insurance companies Social insurance Money Averages Calculation devices Diagrammes Tables Knowledge Expectations Income Expenses Time Control Management Security Fear Threat Risk Injury Death Responsibility Love Solidarity Morality Attachment Affection Dreams Homes Workplaces Families Men, Women Children Etc.

21 What is insurance capable of? Double stabilisation: Stabilising the objects of intervention: objectifying life and workforce as economic potential (commodity) objectifying family life, household economy, the sense of security, happiness etc. Stabilising insurance as an object, defining it as a specific tool: showing what insurance is capable of, what must be and what can be attached to it; assessments of value, calculations; other objects, capacities, moral goods.

22 What is insurance capable of? Insurance as a reactive technology Does not manipulate objects: usefulness is only activated if things go wrong in the future. Insurance as an active technology Does bring about a sense of security in the present moment and thus creates confidence in the environment of action. Often an inbuilt savings component: amassing capital. Thrift and self-discipline is supported by dreams of future happiness, dreams of future consumption.

23 What is insurance capable of? What is of value can be calculated: analyzed in terms of economic value with the help of insurantial tools but only in terms of economic value. Yet, money not the ultimate goal it has to be concretised and qualified: translated into other valuable things such as family relations. Insurance is a means with which to express attachments: love, sense of responsibility. The intensification of rational economic planning implies, simultaneously, the intensification of moral sentiments.