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Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of a letter on display in the Canterbury Quakes exhibition at the Canterbury Museum. The letter was found in a time capsule in the plinth of the statue of John Robert Godley in Cathedral Square after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

A huge milestone in the rebuild of the Christchurch Cathedral. Twelves years since the Canterbury earthquakes caused extensive damage to the building, community leaders and project managers have gathered inside the cathedral this morning for the first time since the quakes. It also marks the completion of stablisation phase of the project. Our reporter Adam Burns went along.

Images, eqnz.chch.2010

Falling gable of the Anglican Community of the Sacred Name building left a gaping hole in the roof in the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit Christchurch on 4 September 2010. The chimney would have toppled as well had it not been braced.

Research Papers, Lincoln University

This research investigates creativity in a post-disaster setting. The data explore creativity at the intersection of the affected community of Christchurch, New Zealand and the social processes that followed the earthquakes of 2010 - 2012. Personal and contextual influences on creative ideas implemented for community or commercial benefit are also examined. Viewed as creative, unique approaches to post-disaster problem solving were celebrated locally, nationally and internationally (Bergman, 2014; Wesener, 2015; Cloke & Conradson, 2018). Much has been written about creativity, particularly creativity in organisations and in business. However, little is known with regards to who creates after a disaster, why individuals choose to do so and what impact the post-disaster context has on their creative activity. This exploratory study draws on the literature from the fields of creativity, disasters, psychology, sociology and entrepreneurship to interpret first-hand accounts of people who acted on creative ideas in a physically and socially altered environment. A mixed method - albeit predominantly qualitative - approach to data gathering was adopted that included interviews (n=45) with participants who had been the primary drivers of creative ideas implemented in Christchurch after September 2010 – the first major (7.1 magnitude) earthquake in a prolonged sequence of thousands of aftershocks. Key findings include that a specific type of creativity results from the ‘collision’ between individuals and social processes activated by a disaster situation. This type of creativity could be best categorised as ‘little c’ or socially adaptive and emerges through a prosocial filter. There is wide consensus amongst creativity researchers - principally social psychologists - that for output to be considered creative it must be both novel and useful (Runco & Jaegar, 2012). There is greater tolerance for the novelty component after a disaster as novelty itself has greater utility, either as a distraction or because alternatives are few. Existing creativity models show context as input – an additional component of the creative process – but after a disaster the event itself becomes the catalyst for social processes that result in the creativity seen. Most participants demonstrated characteristics commonly associated with creativity and could be categorised as either a ‘free thinker’ and/or an ‘opportunist’. Some appear preadapted to create and thrive in unstable circumstances. Findings from participants’ completion of a Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) showed an apparent reduced need for extraversion in relation to implementing creative ventures in society. This factor, along with higher levels of agreeableness may indicate a potentially detrimental effect on the success of creative ideas established after a disaster, despite earnest intentions. Three new models are presented to illustrate the key findings of this study. The models imply that disasters enhance both the perceived value of creativity and the desire to act creatively for prosocial ends. The models also indicate that these disaster influenced changes are likely to be temporary.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of an exhibition sign next to two time capsules on display in the Canterbury Quakes exhibition at the Canterbury Museum. The time capsules were discovered in the plinth of the statue of John Robert Godley in Cathedral Square after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of rhubarb growing in the garden of the Locke family's property at 392 Oxford Terrace. The photographer comments, "The rhubarb was planted by Elsie Locke and was famous in the Avon Loop. It survived despite being untended and I took some and planted it in my own garden".

Research Papers, Lincoln University

The topic of ‘resilience’ thinking seems of late to have superseded that of ‘sustainability’ thinking. Sustainability means simply that which sustains and lasts but has taken on many different subtle nuances over the last 20 years since it came into common parlance with the Bruntland Report of 1987, which sought to clarify the definition. However, resilience ‘speak’ has become hot property now, especially highlighted since Christchurch experienced a natural disaster in the form of several large earthquakes from Sep 2010 until most recently in December 2011. Many people comment on how resilient people have been, how resilient the city has been, so it seems timely to investigate what resilience actually means and importantly, resilient to what and of what? (Lorenz, 2010). This essay will look at the concept of systems and resilience, definitions and theories will be explored generally and then these concepts will be more closely defined within the context of a particular system, that of Somerfield School located in the western suburbs of Christchurch.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of The Press newspapers on display in the Canterbury Quakes exhibition at the Canterbury Museum. The newspapers where discovered inside a time capsule found in the plinth of the statue of John Robert Godley in Cathedral Square after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of The Press newspapers on display in the Canterbury Quakes exhibition at the Canterbury Museum. The newspapers where discovered inside a time capsule found in the plinth of the statue of John Robert Godley in Cathedral Square after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

Elderly residents in Lyttelton have been enjoying free meals while their supermarket is closed and their town is being rebuilt. After February's earthquake, locals found that many of the community's older members felt isolated and had no means of buying groceries for themselves. Christchurch correspondent Katy Gosset finds that Lyttelton is a town that looks after its own.