Two people peer out from underneath a table waiting for an earthquake predicted by astrologer Ken Ring. One of them says 'Load of rubbish that Ken Ring prediction eh?' and the other agrees. Context - After the two big earthquakes in Christchurch on 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011, the so-called Moon Man, Ken Ring, is backing away from his prediction that Christchurch will be whacked by a huge earthquake on the 20th of March 2011. His claims terrified Cantabrians and led to people fleeing Christchurch. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
A photograph submitted by Sarndra to the QuakeStories website. The description reads, "How’s that?! A portaloo that matches the house :o) ... Opawa, April 2011.".
A house that has been yellow-stickered, meaning it has restricted access. Next to it is another notice that says "Danger. Do not enter".
A house that has been yellow-stickered, meaning it has restricted access. Next to it is another notice that says "Danger. Do not enter".
Heritage supporters are hoping that serious earthquake damage wrought upon Christchurch cemeteries will be repaired- but the issue of who funds that work remains unresolved.
A digitally manipulated image of two chairs sitting among rubble. The photographer comments, "There is a strip of land that has been declared as the red zone. This means that the houses facing towards the tidal estuary must be abandoned as they are on land that has been declared uneconomic to repair after the Christchurch earthquakes. These chairs are at the front of one of these properties that will be bulldozed. These seem to be saying come hell or high water we will not be moved".
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.
Damaged property that housed the Talon Arms, a Gunsmith store on Worcester Street. On it are some signs that say 'Free bricks here' and 'Guns gone clear'.
an advocacy network that aims to highlight injustices and issues affecting residents following the Canterbury earthquakes, and challenge decisions, policies and practices that disadvantage recovery.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Liverpool Street. All that remains of the scaffolding that collapsed on June 13".
A man struggles to hold upright a rigid and obstinate man who is shaking like an earthquake. The man pushing says 'That's NOT what we meant by quake strengthening Aaron!' Context: Aaron Gilmore is a councillor, a new councillor, and has been bucking the trend when it comes to voting for the CEO Tony Marryatt who is tied up with CERA, the canterbury earthquake authority, by publicly making his personal views known to the public on radio etc before the voting has been cast. Councillors are meant to present an unbiased facade when it comes to voting. Gilmore was talking to the media and in obvious support of Marryatt....the result being that there was pressure on Gilmore to abstain from voting and stand down from the process. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
A PDF copy of pages 68-69 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Why is This Real Not That?'. Photo: Reuben Woods
What does it mean to “be in a mood” at school? This question guides this thesis, which analyses the relationship between young people’s experiences of moods and the discourses and pedagogies of moods they encounter at school. The emotions and moods of young people in Christchurch, New Zealand, have, in recent years, come under considerable scrutiny. A national decline in rates of youth mental health and concern over the lasting psychological effects of the 2010-2011 Christchurch Earthquakes have justified increased attention to and funding for youth mental health promotion and school-based mental health education programs. Drawing on a year-long school ethnography at a public girl’s high school in Christchurch with 22 Year 10 students (age 14-15), this thesis examines how young people interact with state and psychiatric discourses of youth and mental health. It explores how young people integrate and transform these discourses in their experiences and knowledges of moods as they relate to mental health, education, friendships, and the (in)stability of the self in time. Additionally, this thesis proposes an anthropological reconsideration of moods. Developing insights from phenomenological and medical anthropology and bringing them into conversation with ethnographic analysis, the approach to moods in this thesis sees two necessarily interconnected ways in which moods become significant for understanding subjectivity and contemporary society. On the one hand, moods are an integral dimension of phenomenological experience in which it is possible to dwell in affective ambiguities, producing open-ended horizons of experience. On the other hand, young people’s experience of moods is refracted through moods’ medicalised formulation as experience that can be bounded, taxonomized, transformed into kinds of knowledge about the self, and thus acted on in distinct and morally situated ways. Attending to the experience of “being in a mood” at school reveals how medical and psychiatric knowledges are woven into moral experience in the everyday. This moral experience of moods has critical implications for how young people in New Zealand today situate the self in relationships, in the world, and in time, and therefore is particularly revealing for developing anthropological understandings of teenage subjectivity
It was a warm fair day on the 16th December 1919, a light nor’easterly breeze was blowing through the city. Much the same weather was being experienced throughout the whole of the Dominion. T…
A document that describes a case study on how SCIRT has been designed to create an environment that delivers high performance.
A store window that has been spray painted after it was cleared by a USAR team. This system was used following the February earthquake to mark buildings that have been checked.
The declaration by the Finance Minister that all spending is now under review has prompted warnings that the Christchurch earthquake should not be used to push through unpopular policies.
One oblong perspex covered 3-D model of the fault plains that ruptured to cause the 22 February and 13 June 2011 earthquakes; top of the model also acts as a map overlay. This model provides a visual demonstration of the geological forces that caused the 22 February and 13 June 2011 earthquakes. These forces were so strong that parts of the Por...
Site of a fund that exists to provide financial assistance to owners of earthquake damaged qualifying heritage buildings so that the buildings can be saved if they are repairable.
And just like that, somehow we’re only three sleeps from Christmas and another year has flown by. It always seems like time speeds up once we hit September and that the final three months of the year disappear in the … Continue reading →
Anyone in the office will tell you that I have a keen interest in military history, especially anything related to the World War 2 period. I like my airplanes, yes (hats off to the de Havilland Mosquito, that twin engine … Continue reading →
News that a former military man, Major General Martyn Dunne, is expected to head the first stage of earthquake recovery in Christchurch has reignited debate about how that recovery should be managed.
And just like that, somehow we’re only three sleeps from Christmas and another year has flown by. It always seems like time speeds up once we hit September and that the final three months of the year disappear in the … Continue reading →
We examine the role of business interruption (BI) insurance in business recovery following the Christchurch earthquake in 2011. First, we ask whether BI insurance increases the likelihood of business survival in the immediate (3-6 months) aftermath of a disaster. We find positive but statistically insignificant evidence that those firms that had incurred damage, but were covered by BI insurance, had higher likelihood of survival post-quake compared with those firms that did not have any insurance. For the medium-term (2-3 years) survival of firms, our results show a more explicit role for insurance. Firms with BI insurance experience increased productivity and improved performance following a catastrophe. Furthermore, we find that those organisations that receive prompt and full payments of their claims have a better recovery than those that had protracted or inadequate claims payments, but this difference between the two groups is not statistically significant. We find no statistically significant evidence that the latter group (inadequate payment) did any better than those organisations that had damage but no insurance coverage. In general, our analysis indicates the importance not only of adequate insurance coverage, but also of an insurance system that delivers prompt claim payments. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in 'The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice'. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41288-017-0067-y. The following terms of use apply: https://www.springer.com/gp/open-access/publication-policies/aam-terms-of-use.
We examine the role of business interruption insurance in business recovery following the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 in the short- and medium-term. In the short-term analysis, we ask whether insurance increases the likelihood of business survival in the aftermath of a disaster. We find only weak evidence that those firms that had incurred damage, but were covered by business interruption insurance, had higher likelihood of survival post-quake compared with those firms that did not have insurance. This absence of evidence may reflect the high degree of uncertainty in the months following the 2011 earthquake and the multiplicity of severe aftershocks. For the medium-term, our results show a more explicit role for insurance in the aftermath of a disaster. Firms with business interruption insurance have a higher probability of increasing productivity and improved performance following a catastrophe. Furthermore, our results show that those organisations that receive prompt and full payments of their claims have a better recovery, in terms of profitability and a subjective ‘”better off” measure’ than those that had protracted or inadequate claim payments (less than 80% of the claim paid within 2.5 years). Interestingly, the latter group does worse than those organisations that had damage but no insurance coverage. This analysis strongly indicates the importance not only of good insurance coverage, but of an insurance system that also delivers prompt claim payments. As a first paper attempting to empirically identify a causal effect of insurance on business recovery, we also emphasize some caveats to our analysis.
Whether you share your home with one or not, they say that you’re either a cat person or a dog person. Hamish’s mid-week ‘hands up if you’re a dog person or a cat person’ office poll revealed that most of … Continue reading →
Bricks that have fallen from the A and T Burt building on Ferry Road in Woolston that have been piled in a car park beside the building and enclosed in a safety fence.
A sculpture of a rock climber that has been installed on the steel bracing that has been placed on the tower of the Octagon Live Restaurant (formerly Trinity Church).
  Of all the house sections in all the world, ‘The Smiths’ had to walk into mine. Between 1897 and 1899, that is… Today on the blog I’ll refrain from making jokes about ‘Brangelina’ and the 2004 movie that shares … Continue reading →
Did you ever wonder where the concept of locking things up came from? The reality of human nature seems to be that ever since people have owned things that are deemed valuable, they need to be protected from theft. Not … Continue reading →