Shaking ground and shifting collectives: Understanding community resilience in Kaikōura, Aotearoa New Zealand : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University

At 00:02 on 14 November, 2016 a destructive 7.8 Mw earthquake struck the North Canterbury region of New Zealand’s South Island. Prior to and following the earthquake, natural and social scientists conducted a significant amount of research on the resilience processes and recovery efforts in North Canterbury. This thesis examines community resilience in Kaikōura, a small town and district greatly impacted by the earthquake. Community resilience has been widely used in disaster risk reduction research, policy, and practice to describe how a group of individuals within a boundary respond to events, hazards, and shifts in their everyday life. Using exploratory inquiry, this thesis adopts qualitative research methods including document analysis, 24 semi-structured interviews, and participant observation to explore the idea that the recent scholarly emphasis on resilience has come at the expense of critical engagement with the complexities of communities. I draw on the idea of ‘collectives’ (comprising community-based organisations or less formal social networks with a shared purpose) as a lens to consider how, when unexpected life events happen, collectives can be regarded as a resource for change or constancy. The examination of collectives following a disaster can lend insight into the many elements of community as they bring people together in collaboration or drive them apart in conflict. This thesis therefore contributes to an enhanced practical and theoretical understanding of both community and resilience.

Grantor dc:publisher

Lincoln University

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Rudkevitch, Ashley

• community
• resilience
• earthquake
• collectives
• disaster
• community resilience
• Kaikōura
• disaster risk reduction
• community response
• ANZSRC::330405 Public participation and community engagement
• ANZSRC::330401 Community planning
• ANZSRC::350703 Disaster and emergency management

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence

• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/10182/15314

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz:10182/15314