A video of a presentation by Matthew Pratt during the Resilience and Response Stream of the 2016 People in Disasters Conference. The presentation is titled, "Investing in Connectedness: Building social capital to save lives and aid recovery".The abstract for this presentation reads as follows: Traditionally experts have developed plans to prepare communities for disasters. This presentation discusses the importance of relationship-building and social capital in building resilient communities that are both 'prepared' to respond to disaster events, and 'enabled' to lead their own recovery. As a member of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority's Community Resilience Team, I will present the work I undertook to catalyse community recovery. I will draw from case studies of initiatives that have built community connectedness, community capacity, and provided new opportunities for social cohesion and neighbourhood planning. I will compare three case studies that highlight how social capital can aid recovery. Investment in relationships is crucial to aid preparedness and recovery.
A story submitted by David Hopkins to the QuakeStories website.
Summary of oral history interview with Archna Tandon about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Summary of oral history interview with Amber Henderson about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Transcript of Robyn Anderson's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
Transcript of R C Norman's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
Transcript of Leita Tonkin's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
When the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, at 12.51pm on 22nd February 2011, the psychological and physical landscape was irrevocably changed. In the days and weeks following the disaster communities were isolated due to failed infrastructure, continuing aftershocks and the extensive search and rescue effort which focussed resources on the central business district. In such moments the resilience of a community is truly tested. This research discusses the role of grassroots community groups in facilitating community resilience during the Christchurch 2010/11 earthquakes and the role of place in doing so. I argue that place specific strategies for urban resilience need to be enacted from a grassroots level while being supported by broader policies and agencies. Using a case study of Project Lyttelton – a group aspiring towards a resilient sustainable future who were caught at the epicentre of the February earthquake – I demonstrate the role of a community group in creating resilience through self-organised place specific action during a disaster. The group provided emotional care, basic facilities and rebuilding assistance to the residents of Lyttelton, proving to be an invaluable asset. These actions are closely linked to the characteristics of social support and social learning that have been identified as important to socio-ecological resilience. In addition this research will seek to understand and explore the nuances of place and identity and its role in shaping resilience to such dis-placing events. Drawing on community narratives of the displacement of place identity, the potential for a progressive sense of place as instigated by local groups will be investigated as an avenue for adaptation by communities at risk of disaster and place destabilisation.
The recent Christchurch earthquakes provide a unique opportunity to better understand the relationship between pre-disaster social fault-lines and post-disaster community fracture. As a resident of Christchurch, this paper presents some of my reflections on the social structures and systems, activities, attitudes and decisions that have helped different Canterbury ‘communities’ along their road to recovery, and highlights some issues that have, unfortunately, held us back. These reflections help answer the most crucial question asked of disaster scholarship: what can recovery agencies (including local authorities) do - both before and after disaster - to promote resilience and facilitate recovery. This paper – based on three different definitions of resilience - presents a thematic account of the social recovery landscape. I argue that ‘coping’ might best be associated with adaptive capacity, however ‘thriving’ or ‘bounce forward’ versions of resilience are a function of a community’s participative capacity.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 27 May 2012 entitled, "Dramatic Demolition and May Music".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 13 August 2012 entitled, "Brisk Business at Briscoes".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 23 December 2011 entitled, "Banks in Boxes, Strange Santa, and Tiny Trio".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 23 September 2011 entitled, "Breakfast at Beat Street".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 6 August 2011 entitled, "Saturday Sights".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 4 August 2011 entitled, "Ballantynes Bus, Bargains, and Bullshit".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 7 August 2011 entitled, "Setting the Scene for Scape".
A story submitted by Olive Russell to the QuakeStories website.
An entry from Roz Johnson's blog for 8 May 2013 entitled, "If our cottage is demolished ".
Summary of oral history interview with Mary Hobbs about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Summary of oral history interview with Jacqui Gavin about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Summary of oral history interview with Salma about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes. Pseudonym used to identify interviewee.
Summary of oral history interview with Teruyo about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Transcript of Robin Robins's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
Transcript of Robyn Gosset's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
Transcript of Participant number LY677's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
Summary of oral history interview with Genevieve Togiaso about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 26 November 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
The characteristics of the local environment such as access to community amenity and facilities and their impact on health and wellbeing have been well researched. The question is can local amenity confer similar benefits to help facilitate community resilience? Research following the Christchurch, New Zealand February 22nd 2011 earthquake has shown that socially connected communities were able to respond and adapt with collective action. The informal community response was important in supporting residents until infrastructure and more formal structures could be put in place. This research provides support to the importance of social connectedness prior to a disaster to help foster community resilience. It discusses the role of local infrastructure such as shops, local pubs and community amenity in providing gathering places for people to meet and interact and share information. It shows that geographically defined communities with central meeting places were able to use social connections and from this collective action as support. Resilience is a by-product of having good social connections and community amenity helps to facilitate those connections.
This study explores the nature of smaller businesses’ resilience following two major earthquakes that severely disrupted their place of doing business. Data from the owners of ten smaller businesses are qualitative and longitudinal, spanning the period 2011 through 2018, providing first-hand narrative accounts of their responses in the earthquakes’ aftermath. All ten owners showed some individual resilience; six businesses survived through to 2018, of which three have recovered strongly. All three owned their premises; operated business-tobusiness models; and were able to adapt and continue to follow path-extension strategies. All the other businesses had direct business-to-customer models operating from leased premises, typically in major retail malls. Four eventually recognised path-exhaustion at different times and so did not survive through to 2018. We conclude however that post-disaster recovery is best explained in terms of business model resilience. Even the most resilient of individual owners will struggle to survive if their business model is either not resilient or cannot be made so. Individual resilience is necessary but not sufficient.
An entry from Jennifer Middendorf's blog for 20 September 2010 entitled, "25 hours and 58 minutes".
