But what about the men? : storying rural men's experiences and perspectives of the 2016 Kaikōura/Waiau Earthquake, Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Emergency Management at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
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2020
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Massey University
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Abstract
Aotearoa, New Zealand is prone to environmental hazard events, and has experienced numerous significant disasters. While science research has focused on seismic and climate related risks, further research is needed to explore how social constructions of gender shape responses to, and coping strategies in the aftermath of disasters in New Zealand. Gender analyses of disasters also facilitate understanding the ways in which individuals and communities are adversely affected by natural hazard events.
This thesis explores 19 rural men’s perspectives and experiences of the 2016 Kaikōura/Waiau earthquake, and critically examines their daily realities in the wake of the disaster. One research participant was Māori, and another was a British migrant, the other seventeen participants were Pākehā [European descent]. The qualitative research was underpinned by a feminist epistemology framed by social constructionism and an interpretivist approach to research. Feminist methodology informed data collection. Semi-structured interviewing was used to gather men’s earthquake stories and identify the subtleties and gendered elements of men’s experiences.
Thematic analysis was employed to ascertain key elements embedded within, and across men’s earthquake narratives. Substantive themes identified included: sense of place, emotions, space-time and mobility. Sets of understandings about Antipodean, hegemonic masculinities, coupled with a bricolage of social theories, including the work of Moira Gatens, Pierre Bourdieu, Karen Davies and Doreen Massey provided the analytical framework for the thesis. Theoretical understandings of geographical space in the context of disaster are extended through incorporating Bourdieusian fields and metaphysical forms. An argument is advanced that metaphysical space(s), constituted through memories of, and feelings about the earthquake contribute to shaping participants’ disaster responses and recovery trajectories. The research chapters presented in this thesis explore the ways men’s ontological stories of the Kaikōura/Waiau earthquake were constructed in relation to emotion, sense of place and embedded in multiple mobile temporalities and metaphysical spaces.
This doctoral research identifies that rural men’s realities in the aftermath of the Kaikōura/Waiau earthquake were fundamentally shaped by place, spaces and temporalities. Furthermore, place-specific hegemonic masculinity informed men’s behaviours and practices in response and recovery. Participants drew on meanings of, and attachment to place to navigate and cope with adversity and distress. Emotions related to the earthquake were evident throughout the interviews, inferring continuing trauma and anxieties. Nevertheless, men attempted to sustain representations of Antipodean, hegemonic masculinity by actively silencing distress and challenges. The study demonstrates that the research participants’ earthquake experiences were underpinned by multiple, intersecting metaphysical spaces and temporalities that in some cases, complicated and disrupted recovery. The research contributes to an understanding of complexities in relation to men’s personal experiences of disasters. Suggestions are provided for the inclusion of how localised sets of understandings about masculinities shape response and recovery in national and international disaster policies and practices.
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Listed in 2020 Dean's List of Exceptional Theses
Pages 195-198 were removed from the thesis for copyright reasons but the full article © 2020 Elsevier Ltd may be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101648
Pages 195-198 were removed from the thesis for copyright reasons but the full article © 2020 Elsevier Ltd may be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101648
Keywords
Kaikōura Earthquake, N.Z., 2016, Social aspects, Rural men, New Zealand, Canterbury, Marlborough, Dean's List of Exceptional Theses