Embargo Period

8-7-2025

Degree Name

MA in Climate Change and Global Sustainability

First Advisor

J. Richard Walz, Ph.D.

Abstract

The socio-political movements in post-earthquake Christchurch are studied to better understand the interplay of community gardens, climate, environmental, and land-based education, and to analyze their relevance to entrenching climate resilience in the region. Social networks and community responses to natural disasters like an earthquake are leveraged to understand their ability to influence the pillars of climate resilience, those being community, economic, and ecological resilience, respectively. The central hypothesis and research question of this paper will seek to answer: Can social cooperation in the wake of a natural disaster influence the ability of a community to respond to similar disruptions caused by climate change? Semi-structured narrative interviews, participant observation, and volunteering composed the backbone of the methodology used to produce a qualitative analysis of these social movements and evaluate their relevance to building resilience. The rich narratives composed from this suggest that the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence unilaterally brought the Christchurch community together, with many grassroots, bottom-up social movements led by educators and gardeners materializing. Christchurch has supported the upscaling of community gardens, in no small part due to the social, mental, and physical well-being they inspire. In concert with land-based education, they positively impact the pillars of climate resilience. However, despite Christchurch’s political progress through Food Resilience and Regeneration plans, the City Council and New Zealand still sorely lack a comprehensive approach to climate curricula and action. An update of the New Zealand Curriculum is scheduled for implementation in 2027, and the three largest metropolitan areas have climate resilience plans of their own, but it is still too early to determine if they will deliver transformative climate action that other well-meaning policies and curricula promised and failed to deliver. This research recommended building on the positive momentum of social movements, where communities are used as resilience capacity builders.

Disciplines

Curriculum and Social Inquiry | Food Security

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