Detail of damage to a house in Richmond. A double-brick wall has collapsed. A wire loop which formerly tied the two layers of bricks together has pulled out from one of the layers, showing how the two parts of the wall moved apart during the shaking. The photographer comments, "These photos show our old house in River Rd and recovery work around Richmond and St Albans. The remaining double brick by the back door has been further smashed and twisted".
Mechanistic and scientific approaches to resilience assume that there is a “tipping point” at which a system can no longer absorb adversity; after this point, it is liable to collapse. Some of these perspectives, particularly those stemming from ecology and psychology, recognise that individuals and communities cannot be perpetually resilient without limits. While the resilience paradigm has been imported into the social sciences, the limits to resilience have often been disregarded. This leads to an overestimation of “human resourcefulness” within the resilience paradigm. In policy discourse, practice, and research, resilience seems to be treated as a “limitless” and human quality in which individuals and communities can effectively cope with any hazard at any time, for as long as they want and with any people. We critique these assumptions with reference to the recovery case in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand following the 2010-11 Canterbury earthquake sequence. We discuss the limits to resilience and reconceptualise resilience thinking for disaster risk reduction and sustainable recovery and development.
An entry from Jennifer Middendorf's blog for 4 September 2010 entitled, "Just a quick note to say we're ok".
An entry from Jennifer Middendorf's blog for 4 September 2010 entitled, "It's been a weird sort of day".
An entry from Jennifer Middendorf's blog for 24 February 2011 entitled, "Checking in".
An entry from Jennifer Middendorf's blog for 1 March 2011 entitled, "Back home".
A story submitted by Joan Curry to the QuakeStories website.
A photograph of a lamb wearing a red cape with All Right? badges pinned to it. All Right? posted the photograph on their Facebook page on 12 August 2013 at 1:47pm.
Summary of oral history interview with Emily Nooapii about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Transcript of Blair Anderson's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
Transcript of Ursula's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
Transcript of Bethan Yates's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
Summary of oral history interview with Caroline about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Transcript of Vic Bartley's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
Transcript of Maryrose Ansell's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
The lived reality of the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes and its implications for the Waimakariri District, a small but rapidly growing district (third tier of government in New Zealand) north of Christchurch, can illustrate how community well-being, community resilience, and community capitals interrelate in practice generating paradoxical results out of what can otherwise be conceived as a textbook ‘best practice’ case of earthquake recovery. The Waimakariri District Council’s integrated community based recovery framework designed and implemented post-earthquakes in the District was built upon strong political, social, and moral capital elements such as: inter-institutional integration and communication, participation, local knowledge, and social justice. This approach enabled very positive community outputs such as artistic community interventions of the urban environment and communal food forests amongst others. Yet, interests responding to broader economic and political processes (continuous central government interventions, insurance and reinsurance processes, changing socio-cultural patterns) produced a significant loss of community capitals (E.g.: social fragmentation, participation exhaustion, economic leakage, etc.) which simultaneously, despite local Council and community efforts, hindered community well-being in the long term. The story of the Waimakariri District helps understand how resilience governance operates in practice where multi-scalar, non-linear, paradoxical, dynamic, and uncertain outcomes appear to be the norm that underpins the construction of equitable, transformative, and sustainable pathways towards the future.
A pdf transcript of Nicolas Warren's second earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox Take 2 project. Interviewer: Sriparna Saha. Transcriber: Samuel Hope.
A pdf transcript of Pat Penrose's second earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox Take 2 project. Interviewer: Samuel Hope. Transcriber: Maggie Blackwood.
A story submitted by Tracy to the QuakeStories website.
Summary of oral history interview with Janelle Mackie about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Summary of oral history interview with Alana Harvey about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Many buildings with relatively low damage from the 2010-2011 Canterbury were deemed uneconomic to repair and were replaced [1,2]. Factors that affected commercial building owners’ decisions to replace rather than repair, included capital availability, uncertainty with regards to regional recovery, local market conditions and ability to generate cash flow, and repair delays due to limited property access (cordon). This poster provides a framework for modeling decision-making in a case where repair is feasible but replacement might offer greater economic value – a situation not currently modeled in engineering risk analysis.
A video of Ladi6 and All Right? staff member Ciaran Fox getting out and about in Christchurch, talking with owner Hamish Evens at Switch Espresso cafe at Brighton Mall in New Brighton. Fox and Evens talk about Switch Espresso and its role in the social recovery in New Brighton. All Right? uploaded the video to YouTube on 21 April 2015 and posted a link to the video on their Facebook Timeline on 25 May 2015 at 8:30pm.
A pdf transcript of Pamela's second earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox Take 2 project. Interviewer: Joshua Black. Transcriber: Maggie Blackwood.
Creativity that is driven by a need for physical or economic survival, which disasters are likely to inspire, raises the question of whether such creativity fits with conventional theories and perspectives of creativity. In this paper we use the opportunity afforded by the 2010-2013 Christchurch, New Zealand earthquakes to follow and assess the creative practices and responses of a number of groups and individuals. We use in-depth interviews to tease out motivations and read these against a range of theoretical propositions about creativity. In particular, we focus on the construct of “elite panic” and the degree to which this appeared to be evident in the Christchurch earthquakes context. Bureaucratic attempts to control or limit creativity were present but they did not produce a completely blanket dampening effect. Certain individuals and groups seemed to be pre-equipped to navigate or ignore potential blocks to creativity. We argue, using Geir Kaufmann’s novelty-creativity matrix and aspects of Teresa Amabile’s and Michael G. Pratt’s revised componential theory of creativity that a special form of disaster creativity does exist.
A pdf transcript of Participant number LY677's second earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox Take 2 project. Interviewer: Samuel Hope. Transcriber: Josie Hepburn.
A pdf transcript of John's second earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox Take 2 project. Interviewer: Samuel Hope. Transcriber: Natalie Looyer.
A pdf transcript of Julie's second earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox Take 2 project. Interviewer: Rosemary Du Plessis. Transcriber: Natalie Looyer.
A pdf transcript of Participant number EG138's second earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox Take 2 project. Interviewer: Samuel Hope. Transcriber: Samuel Hope.
A pdf transcript of Sarah Shaw's second earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox Take 2 project. Interviewer: Samuel Hope. Transcriber: Samuel Hope.