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    ‘One big team working together’ - Shifting narratives to encourage civic participation and collective action in disaster preparedness
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2025-02-15) Das M; Becker J; Doyle EEH
    Disaster risks cannot be reduced by individual efforts alone and necessitate community participation and collective action. However, communicating and encouraging collective action is difficult. Existing studies show that stories and narratives are useful to convey complex less-understood phenomena, like disasters, in a comprehendible and relatable manner. As such, this paper explores existing disaster narratives and aims to understand how they encourage civic participation and collective action for reducing disaster risks. The findings show that the framing of disasters in mass media narratives are unlikely to encourage collective action as they do not emphasize citizen's agency and efficacy in reducing disaster risks. However, in the narratives shared at the local level between emergency management agencies and community members, there is currently a shift towards emphasizing community agency, efficacy, and responsibilities in reducing disaster risks. Four dominant themes are identified in these narratives: reframing the concept of heroes, promoting connection and care, emphasizing collective efficacy and collective responsibility. While the narratives are beneficial, they also cause some tensions, such as, confusion arising from lingering response-centric narratives; frustration around the collective responsibility narratives; and resistance to the current narratives as they are perceived as attempts by emergency management agencies to transfer emergency management responsibilities to people. The implications of the findings and the future directions are presented.
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    Exploring older adults' understandings of disaster preparedness : a New Zealand perspective : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2014) Tuohy, Robyn Jean
    Individual preparedness for a disaster has centred on educating and encouraging people to protect themselves against injury and damage to assist with response and recovery after a disaster. Research on factors influencing individual disaster preparedness has focused on demographic and psychological variables, while socio-cultural contexts have received less attention. These omissions may help explain why more vulnerable population groups are disproportionately affected. Older adults are a rapidly increasing population group who are a vulnerable group at greater risk of negative effects during and after a disaster; however, little attention has been given to older adults’ perspectives about disaster preparedness. This thesis is presented as four papers written for submission to peer reviewed journals, and explores older adults’ meanings and experiences about disaster preparedness from a social constructionist perspective. A series of 26 qualitative interviews using a narrative methodology was undertaken in 2012 with participants located in Wellington and Christchurch (median ages 84, and 80), New Zealand. Participants were recruited through a home support agency. Inductive thematic analysis of the data sets was undertaken, which attended to the influences of personal and socio-cultural contexts on disaster preparedness. The first paper provides a conceptual argument for use of qualitative methodologies to further explore understandings of disaster preparedness. The second paper focuses on older adults’ household disaster preparedness in Wellington, which identified that older adults accepted personal responsibility for assembling and maintaining their survival kits. Practical concerns such as the ability to refill water bottles, monitor stock rotation, and ensure adequate medication supplies were identified to be difficult for some. Preparedness was also associated with the quality of supportive social relationships that could provide assistance. The third paper is also based on the Wellington study, and provides a broader discussion about everyday preparedness. Meanings and experiences of preparedness were concerned with managing health decline, preparing for death, and the interpersonal complexity of negotiating their personal and social needs to remain independent in the community. The fourth paper discusses older adults’ experiences of preparedness during the Canterbury earthquake sequence (2010-2012). Disaster preparedness was primarily linked to the importance of social relationships; and a concern regarding a lack of age appropriate safety messages about personal protection. This thesis contributes to the literature on disaster preparedness by identifying age specific influences, which relate to managing personal health, social support and socio-cultural norms of independence. Some participants lacked informational, health and social resources, which would enable preparedness actions and the ability to respond effectively. The research from the Wellington and Christchurch studies identifies the need for coordinated, multidisciplinary age specific disaster preparedness planning to assist individual and community resilience.
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    Organisational responses to warnings of impending hazards : what can be learned from the September 2009 and February 2010 warnings in New Zealand? : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Emergency Management, 130.899, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) Beets, Belinda Yvette
    The purpose of this study was to investigate organisational response to two tsunami warnings issued for New Zealand in September 2009 and February 2010 following off-shore earthquakes: Samoa and Chile respectfully. Communication was at the forefront of the investigation with the aim to discover how communication could potentially affect response, coordination and planning. Four methods were applied using semi-structured questionnaires to obtain qualitative and quantitative information, literature reviews and reviews of technical and debriefing reports. Seventy nine organisations were approached to participate. Twenty five questionnaires were sent out to six organisations in various regions for staff to complete with 18 returned. Interviews were organised and were conducted, with 5 completed. One debriefing report provided relevant information and was treated as an interview. The results of the study indicated the majority of respondents (71%) considered their organisational response to the tsunami warnings in 2009 were effective (53%) and very effective (18%). The majority did encounter problems during the September 2009 tsunami warning with 29% indicating a less than effective response. In 2010, improvements were seen with 44% indicating the response was effective and 38% thought is was very effective and 19% indicating it was less than effective. Interagency communication was very effective for 14% in 2009; slightly increasing to 19% in 2010. In 2009 it was effective for 29%; increasing to 56% in 2010. Interagency communication was somewhat ineffective for 43% in 2009 reducing to 19% in 2010. Terminology was one issue raised by all respondents as this did cause confusion amongst response agencies. Intra-agency communication was believed to be very effective (12%) and effective (41%) in 2009; improving in 2010 (31% and 50% respectively). Some (41%) who did believed intra-agency communication was somewhat ineffective in 2009; reducing to 13% in 2010. Some indicated it was ineffective in 2009 (6%) and 2010 (6%). Planning issues were identified in 2009 by 71% of respondents and in 2010 this reduced to 64%. Others indicated no issues (28%) with planning in 2009. In 2010, 36% indicated no planning issues. The roles and responsibilities of the EOC and primary emergency services communication centres indicated more planning and transparency was required. Coordinated incident management was required with 81% indicating it was fully utilised and 19% did not fully utilise or use coordinated incident management (CIMS) in 2009. There was little change in 2010 with only 80% fully utilising CIMS and 20% either not utilising it fully or not using it at all. In 2009, 72% believed the warning to be a good reminder of New Zealand’s vulnerability to natural disasters; dropping to 53% in 2010. In 2009, 39% believed it to be a good training exercise; increasing to 47% in 2010. Interviewees indicated lateral and vertical communication pathways were not always implemented. Coordination was not always functional. The results also revealed that the warnings sufficed as a good training exercise due to the urgency and requirement to respond. This allowed organisations to test their procedures and identify gaps in knowledge and plans. The principle conclusion was that communication can affect response, coordination and planning. Communication has to work in its entirety. When gaps appear in communication pathways, this has an effect on planning, response and coordination. All response organisations need to re-evaluate the current CIMS structure, training, terminology used, and communication pathways to improve response.