Making a Market for Acts of God: The Practice of Risk Trading in the Global Reinsurance Industry

Reinsurance is a market that provides cover for the devastating consequences of unpredictable events such as Hurricane Katrina, or the Tohoku earthquake, underpinning society's capacity to rebuild after the unthinkable happens. This book fleshes out how this important and quirky financial market works.

Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor, Cass Business School, City University London,Rebecca Bednarek, Research Fellow, Cass Business School, City University London,Paul Spee, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University

Professor Paula Jarzabkowski is a Professor of Strategic Management at Cass Business School, City University London. Paula's research focuses on strategy-as-practice in complex contexts and market making in financial industries, particularly insurance and reinsurance. Her research has been foundational in the establishment of the field of strategy-as-practice and she published the first book on strategy-as-practice; 'Strategy as Practice: An Activity-Based Approach'. She is experienced in qualitative methods, most recently leading and conducting the first global ethnography of the reinsurance industry. The relevance of this ethnographic study to industry was recognized in 2013 when she was award the prestigious ESRC Outstanding Impact on Business Award. Her work has appeared in a number of leading management and organizational journals including Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal.

Dr. Rebecca Bednarek is a Research Fellow at Cass Business School, City University London. Drawing from a practice-theory perspective, she has an interest in strategizing in pluralistic or paradoxical organizational settings as well as investigating the various practices, such a calculation and evaluation, through which financial markets are constructed. She has developed a strong background in qualitative research methods, including global ethnography, through her studies of the science and reinsurance sectors. Her research has been published in Human Relations, Industrial Relations Journal and Research in the Sociology of Organization.


Dr. Paul Spee is a Senior Lecturer at University Queensland Business School. Informed by social practice theory, his research interest revolves around the social dynamics of strategists and the way heuristics such as strategy tools are adopted and how they influence a firm's strategizing behavior. More recently, his work has expanded to investigate the practice of market making in the reinsurance industry, with a particular emphasis on the socio-materiality and calculative practices involved. His work has been published in leading journals on management and organization theory such as the Academy of Management Journal, International Journal of Management Reviews, Organization Studies and Strategic Organization.