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Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Building, the Copthorne Hotel, and the Forsyth Barr Building taken from the corner of Kilmore and Colombo Streets. In the background, a crane is hanging over the city.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph looking east down Gloucester Street, towards the intersection of Manchester Street. On-lookers are surveying earthquake damage from behind the cordon. The Christchurch City Council parking building can be seen in the distance.

Research papers, University of Canterbury Library

This thesis is about many things, not least of all the September 4th 2010 and February 22nd 2011 earthquakes that shook Christchurch, New Zealand. A city was shaken, events which worked to lay open the normally invisible yet vital objects, processes and technologies which are the focus of inquiry: the sewers, pipes, pumps, the digital technologies, the land and politics which constitute the Christchurch wastewater networks. The thesis is an eclectic mix drawing together methods and concepts from Bruno Latour, John Law, Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Nigel Thrift, Donna Haraway and Patrick Joyce. It is an exploration of how the technologies and objects of sanitation perform the city, and how such things which are normally hidden and obscured, are made visible. The question of visibility is also turned toward the research itself: how does one observe, and describe? How are sociological visibilities constructed? Through the research, the encountering of objects in the field, the processes of method, the pedagogy of concepts, and the construction of risk, the thesis comes to be understood as a particular kind of social scientific artefact which assembles four different accounts: the first regards the construction of visibility; the second explores Christchurch city from the control room where the urban sanitary infrastructures are monitored; the third chapter looks at the formatted and embodied practices which emerge with the correlation of the city and sanitation; the fourth looks at the changing politics of a city grappling with severely damaged essential services, land and structures. The final chapter considers how the differences between romantic and baroque sensibilities mean that these four accounts elicit knowing not through smoothness or uniformity, but in partiality and non-coherence. This thesis is about pipes, pump stations, and treatment plants; about the effluent of a city; about the messiness of social science when confronted by the equally messy world of wastewater.

Images, UC QuakeStudies

A photograph looking north down Manchester Street, taken from the intersection of Gloucester Street. In the distance, the road has been cordoned off. The Christchurch City Council car parking building can be seen on the right.

Audio, Radio New Zealand

A lecturer at Canterbury University's School of Forestry, Justin Morgenroth on new research into the lifesaving role played by trees in the Christchurch earthquakes - and the importance of urban forests for the future of the city.

Videos, UC QuakeStudies

A video of the first part of an address by Joseph Thomas, CEO of NZIM Southern, at the 2012 Seismics and the City forum. The talk explores how post-quake Christchurch has become a laboratory for new ways of working and accelerated change, and how it is important for organisations to identify and develop the cadre of new leaders who came to the forefront during and after the February quake.

Videos, UC QuakeStudies

A video of the second part of an address by Joseph Thomas, CEO of NZIM Southern, at the 2012 Seismics and the City forum. The talk explores how post-quake Christchurch has become a laboratory for new ways of working and accelerated change, and how it is important for organisations to identify and develop the cadre of new leaders who came to the forefront during and after the February quake.