The Kaikoura Recovery
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BALANCING RECOVERY GOVERNANCE WITH DISASTERS IN CLOSE PROXIMITY: THE KAIKOURA RECOVERY A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce in Management Lily Nicol DEPERTMENT OF MANAGEMENT, MARKETING AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY 2018 I Acknowledgements I would like to thank my academic supervisor Bernard Walker for his wisdom, insight and support throughout the duration of this research. Your guidance and expertise has been thoroughly appreciated. Secondly, I’d like to thank my family and friends for the constant love and encouragement. Dad, your support and reassurance will be cherished forever. A special mention needs to be made to my friends in the MCom class of 2018, I wouldn’t have made it through without your fantastic company. And lastly, I’d like to sincerely thank everyone who took the time to speak to me about their recovery experience. Without you this thesis would not be possible. Balancing recovery governance with disasters in close proximity: The Kaikoura recovery II Abstract On November 14 2016 a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the south island of New Zealand. The earthquake lasted for just two minutes with severe seismic shaking and damage in the Hurunui and Kaikōura districts. Although these are predominantly rural areas, with scattered small towns and mountainous topography, they also contain road and rail routes that are essential parts of the national transport infrastructure. This earthquake and the subsequent recovery are of particular significance as they represent a disaster following in close proximity to another similar disaster, with the Canterbury earthquakes occurring in a neighboring district five years earlier. The research used an inductive qualitative case study to explore the nature of the Kaikōura recovery. That recovery process involved a complex interplay between the three parties; (a) the existing local government in the district, (b) central government agencies funding the recovery of the local residents and the national transport infrastructure, and (c) recovery leaders arriving with recent expertise from the earlier Canterbury disaster. It was evident that three groups: locals, government, and experts represented a multi-party governance debate in which the control of the Kaikōura earthquake recovery was shared amongst them. Each party had their own expertise, adgenda and networks that they brought to the Kaikōura recovery, but this created tensions between external expertise and local, community leadership. Recent earthquake research suggests that New Zealand is currently in the midst of an earthquake cluster, with further seismic disasters likely to occur in relatively close succession. This is likely to be compounded by the increasing frequency of other natural disasters with the effects of climate change. The present study investigates a phenomenon that may become increasingly common, with the transfer of disaster expertise from one event to another, and the interface between those experts with local and national government in directing recoveries. The findings of this study have implications for practitioners and policy makers in NZ and other countries where disasters are experienced in close spatial and temporal proximity. Balancing recovery governance with disasters in close proximity: The Kaikoura recovery III Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................ I Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ II List of tables ...................................................................................................................................... V List of figures .................................................................................................................................... VI 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The Kaikōura Earthquake ......................................................................................................... 2 1.2 The Kaikōura recovery ............................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Research Background............................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Research objectives ................................................................................................................. 6 1.5 Thesis outline........................................................................................................................... 7 2. Literature review ........................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Disasters .................................................................................................................................. 9 2.2 Background ............................................................................................................................ 10 2.2.1 Canterbury earthquakes recovery ................................................................................... 10 2.2.2 Kaikōura Earthquake recovery ......................................................................................... 11 2.3 Rural studies .......................................................................................................................... 12 2.4 Social capital .......................................................................................................................... 13 2.4.1 Community involvement ................................................................................................. 15 2.4.2 Relationships................................................................................................................... 20 2.5 Post-disaster governance ....................................................................................................... 21 2.5.1 Locally-led recovery ........................................................................................................ 23 2.5.2 Role of local government ................................................................................................ 23 2.6 Discussion and implications ................................................................................................... 24 3. Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 26 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 26 3.2 Research design ..................................................................................................................... 26 3.2.1 The notion of qualitative research ................................................................................... 27 3.3 The Strategy of Inquiry- the Case Study .................................................................................. 28 3.4 Data collection ....................................................................................................................... 30 3.4.1 Participant selection........................................................................................................ 32 3.5 Data analysis .......................................................................................................................... 34 3.5.1 Data analysis process ...................................................................................................... 35 3.6 Ethical considerations ............................................................................................................ 36 4. Findings ....................................................................................................................................... 38 4.1 Recovery ethos ...................................................................................................................... 39 Balancing recovery governance with disasters in close proximity: The Kaikoura recovery IV 4.1.1 Kaikōura recovery ........................................................................................................... 39 4.1.2 Tension inherent in the multi-party governance .............................................................. 42 4.1.3 Government involvement ............................................................................................... 44 4.1.4 Role of expert leaders in recovery ................................................................................... 45 4.1.5 Community consultation ................................................................................................. 47 4.1.6 Communication ............................................................................................................... 49 4.2 Social capital .......................................................................................................................... 51 4.2.1 Experts personal connections .......................................................................................... 52 4.2.2 Collaboration of recovery facilitators............................................................................... 54 4.3 Learning ................................................................................................................................