Stories of relocation to the Waikato: Spaces of emotion and affect in the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes, Aotearoa New Zealand

Emotion and affect are enmeshed in the lives of relocated Cantabrians. A project on the lived geographies of relocation disrupts the predominance of model based approaches in hazards and disaster literature. The previously taken-for-granted aspects of how people relate to one another and are in turn shaped by those relationships are of central concern. The research brings together the stories of people from 19 households who moved to the Waikato region of New Zealand as a result of the Canterbury earthquakes and aftershocks. It is argued that exploring relocation through the lens of emotion and affect can give rise to an understanding of the collective aspects of non-conscious, embodied and emotional life-worlds of relocatees. Semi-structured interviews, spontaneous focus groups and follow-up interviews were used to access emotional and affectual geographies and participants’ life experiences. Three main themes are addressed in relation to disasters: 1) bodies which are proximate and connected to other bodies; 2) sub-conscious and psychosocial aspects of relocation, especially ambivalence; and 3) the co-mingling of materials (buildings, architecture) with an emotional and affective sense of self. To explain each of these themes in turn, attention is paid to what bodies do to illustrate that proximity and connection are both present and desired by respondents in post-disaster and relocated spaces. The second theme of sub-conscious and psychosocial impacts explores how ambivalence exposes complexity and contradiction, which are tightly bound to the experience of relocation. The third theme of materiality is used to make clear how bodies and buildings are co-constituted. Homes, churches and other city buildings can become containers of memory inspiring feelings of dread, loss, and grief but also, comfort, belonging and identity. Emotion and affect, then, are critical to understanding the impacts of the earthquakes and relocation on people and communities, they are a call to think about complexity and are considered to be a large component of the human experience of surviving a disaster

Reconnaissance observations by CIGIDEN after the 2015 Illapel, Chile earthquake and tsunami

This paper describes the reconnaissance work conducted by researchers from the National Research Center for Integrated Natural Disaster Management (CIGIDEN) between September 23rd and October 2nd in the area affected by the Mw 8.3 Illapel megathrust earthquake, which struck offshore the coast of the Coquimbo Region in central Chile on September 16th , 2015. A first team focused on the seismic performance and effects of the tsunami on public hospitals and on reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. A second team focused on the road network infrastructure. Field work included: (i) a survey on the physical and functional damages of the public hospitals in the Region; (ii) a visual inspection and preliminary damage assessment of 20 RC buildings in the largest cities of the region and an aftershock instrumentation of the Coquimbo hospital; and (iii) the inspection of bridges, pedestrian bridges, and rockfall along overstepped cut slopes of the road network. The overall limited impact of this megathrust earthquake may be explained in part by the long-term efforts made by the country to prepare for such events. Learnings from the 2010 Maule earthquake were evidenced in the successful evacuation along the coast of the country, and the overall good performance of engineered masonry structures, and of RC buildings designed after 2010

Geographies of fidelity: emergent spaces of third sector activity after the Canterbury earthquakes

This thesis examines creative trajectories of urban life that irrupted as a result of a series of devastating earthquakes in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2010-11. In particular, it focuses on third sector organisations (TSOs) that emerged during the recovery period, and examines how these organisations sought to inscribe themselves within the re-emerging city. In doing so, I argue that the rupture afforded by the earthquakes opened up the possibility for the dominant practices of a complex political conservatism to be challenged through the emergence of new and previously restrained claims to the city that have manifested through these TSOs. These organisations have made use of the temporary recovery-spaces of the city, and appear to be working to embed their underlying values and politics in its renewal. Pertinently, this thesis comprehensively explores the ways these emergent organisations were impelled and sustained by improvisations that attempted to invoke and continue a fidelity to the earthquake event. The dominant narrative in the city has since critiqued these emergent organisations as being subsumed by a broader state project that is working to restore a neoliberal and conservative style of politics. Drawing largely upon in-depth participatory research within emergent TSOs, this thesis seeks to evaluate the notion that the creative forces of these organisations have become stripped of radical potential through a gradual incorporation into a more resilient version of the previous political orthodoxy. In doing so, it contributes to literatures on the political possibilities of the third sector by paying attention to the organisational practices that foster alternative logics of performative expression, political engagement and cultural imagination alongside formations of the seemingly neoliberal. By drawing attention towards the tentative probing of sociocultural and material fissures, practices of organisational experimentation and the ethical agency of staff, I argue that the sector might be viewed as fostering spaces through which alternative ethical and political sensibilities are being actively contested on a range of scales. Subsequently, this thesis explores how the foundations and relations that previously made the city legible have been shaken. Accordingly, the research offers a re-reading of the earthquakes that makes an argument for something more complex than an automatic return to the status-quo. It recognises the earthquakes as a series of violent geophysical events that prompted the irruption of some potentially disruptive imaginations, but explores perceptions that the disaster couldn’t impel others. Underpinning discussion on how these imaginations are grasped and sustained is an examination of how possibilities were afforded or curbed by interpretations of what the earthquakes represented (or enabled) in ongoing storylines of the city. Consequently, this thesis explores what it actually meant in practice for these organisations to be faithful to the event

Geographies of ageing and disaster: older people’s experiences of post-disaster recovery in Christchurch, New Zealand

It was 12:51pm on Tuesday the 22nd of February when a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck the Canterbury region in New Zealand’s South Island. This earthquake devastatingly took the lives of 185 people and caused widespread damage across Christchurch and the Canterbury region. Since the February earthquake there has been 15,832 quakes in the Canterbury region. The impact of the earthquakes has resulted in ongoing social, material and political change which has shaped how everyday life is experienced. While the Christchurch earthquakes have been investigated in relation to a number of different angles and agendas, to date there has been a notable absence on how older people in Christchurch are experiencing post-disaster recovery. This PhD research attends to this omission and by drawing upon geographical scholarship on disasters and ageing to better understand the everyday experiences of post-disaster recovery for older people. This thesis identifies a lack of geographical attention to the emotional, affective and embodied experience of disaster. In response to this the thesis draws upon qualitative material collected from a six months fieldwork period to better understand the ways in which everyday life is lived out in an environment which has been social and materially altered. This thesis identifies three main interrelated themes which are productive for advancing understandings of how older people are situated in a post-disaster context. The first is that the concepts of emotion, affect and embodiment matter as they help inform how disasters are experienced and negotiated and the implication this has on various social and spatial relations. The second is that the disruption of the disaster to everyday places has implications on senses of belonging which is illustrated in highly temporal and affective dimensions. The third theme highlights the importance of recognising mundane and everyday practices as a means of coping and persisting with ongoing impacts of the disaster. This thesis argues that older people should not be seen as passive or homogenous agents in a disaster context but, in fact, are experiencing highly emotional impacts of disaster.Economic and Social Research Counci

Present and future resilience research driven by science and technology

Community resilience against major disasters is a multidisciplinary research field that garners an ever-increasing interest worldwide. This paper provides summaries of the discussions held on the subject matter and the research outcomes presented during the Second Resilience Workshop in Nanjing and Shanghai. It, thus, offers a community view of present work and future research directions identified by the workshop participants who hail from Asia – including China, Japan and Korea; Europe and the Americas

But what about the men? : storying rural men's experiences and perspectives of the 2016 Kaikōura/Waiau Earthquake, Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Emergency Management at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Listed in 2020 Dean's List of Exceptional ThesesPages 195-198 were removed from the thesis for copyright reasons but the full article © 2020 Elsevier Ltd may be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101648Aotearoa, New Zealand is prone to environmental hazard events, and has experienced numerous significant disasters. While science research has focused on seismic and climate related risks, further research is needed to explore how social constructions of gender shape responses to, and coping strategies in the aftermath of disasters in New Zealand. Gender analyses of disasters also facilitate understanding the ways in which individuals and communities are adversely affected by natural hazard events. This thesis explores 19 rural men’s perspectives and experiences of the 2016 Kaikōura/Waiau earthquake, and critically examines their daily realities in the wake of the disaster. One research participant was Māori, and another was a British migrant, the other seventeen participants were Pākehā [European descent]. The qualitative research was underpinned by a feminist epistemology framed by social constructionism and an interpretivist approach to research. Feminist methodology informed data collection. Semi-structured interviewing was used to gather men’s earthquake stories and identify the subtleties and gendered elements of men’s experiences. Thematic analysis was employed to ascertain key elements embedded within, and across men’s earthquake narratives. Substantive themes identified included: sense of place, emotions, space-time and mobility. Sets of understandings about Antipodean, hegemonic masculinities, coupled with a bricolage of social theories, including the work of Moira Gatens, Pierre Bourdieu, Karen Davies and Doreen Massey provided the analytical framework for the thesis. Theoretical understandings of geographical space in the context of disaster are extended through incorporating Bourdieusian fields and metaphysical forms. An argument is advanced that metaphysical space(s), constituted through memories of, and feelings about the earthquake contribute to shaping participants’ disaster responses and recovery trajectories. The research chapters presented in this thesis explore the ways men’s ontological stories of the Kaikōura/Waiau earthquake were constructed in relation to emotion, sense of place and embedded in multiple mobile temporalities and metaphysical spaces. This doctoral research identifies that rural men’s realities in the aftermath of the Kaikōura/Waiau earthquake were fundamentally shaped by place, spaces and temporalities. Furthermore, place-specific hegemonic masculinity informed men’s behaviours and practices in response and recovery. Participants drew on meanings of, and attachment to place to navigate and cope with adversity and distress. Emotions related to the earthquake were evident throughout the interviews, inferring continuing trauma and anxieties. Nevertheless, men attempted to sustain representations of Antipodean, hegemonic masculinity by actively silencing distress and challenges. The study demonstrates that the research participants’ earthquake experiences were underpinned by multiple, intersecting metaphysical spaces and temporalities that in some cases, complicated and disrupted recovery. The research contributes to an understanding of complexities in relation to men’s personal experiences of disasters. Suggestions are provided for the inclusion of how localised sets of understandings about masculinities shape response and recovery in national and international disaster policies and practices

The Social Media Intelligence Analyst for Emergency Management

The Social Media Intelligence Analyst is a new operational role within a State Control Centre in Victoria, Australia dedicated to obtaining situational awareness from social media to support decision making for emergency management. We outline where this role fits within the structure of a command and control organisation, describe the requirements for such a position and detail the operational activities expected during an emergency event. As evidence of the importance of this role, we provide three real world examples where important information was obtained from social media which led to improved outcomes for the community concerned. \ \ This is the first time a dedicated role has been formally established solely for monitoring social media for emergency management intelligence gathering purposes in Victoria. To the best of our knowledge, it is also the first time such a dedicated position in an operational crisis coordination centre setting has been described in the literature

Approaches to Disaster Management

Approaches to Disaster Management regards critical disaster management issues. Ten original research reports by international scholars centered on disaster management are organized into three general areas of hazards and disaster management. The first section includes discussions of perspectives on vulnerability and on evolving approaches to mitigation. The second section highlights approaches to improve data use and information management in several distinct applications intended to promote prediction and communication of hazard. The third section regards the management of crises and post-event recovery in the private sector, in the design of urban space and among the victims of disaster. This volume contributes both conceptual and practical commentary to the disaster management literature