2012 Winter Lectures: Hazards, Disasters, Risks & Responses

Professor Saville Kushner, Faculty of Education: Disaster and democracy: a global perspective.

Much ridicule was once made of the fact that aid packs handed out in third world emergencies and disasters contained a toothbrush and paste. The ridicule was misplaced. Nothing is trivial in the wake of tsunamis, earthquakes or holocausts. You might cling to a toothbrush as a cherished vision of what might be regained. How do we measure value and significance in these situations?

More broadly, it has been said that “nowhere is democracy under greater threat than in the unstable context of disasters and emergencies”. Here is where political, social and physical infrastructures are all stretched – often to breaking point.

The last two years brought the unpredictable nature of New Zealand’s natural and man-made hazards to the fore. Christchurch’s major earthquake and its devastating aftershocks, the Pike River mine disaster, the Rena oil spill, heavy rain and snow falls, tornadoes and other unexpected events overstretched the country’s infrastructure, caused loss of life and livelihood, and tested the strength and resilience of everyday New Zealanders. This lecture series, held from July 17 until August 21, explores New Zealand’s disasters - the risks we face and the responses we make to those risks. Experts and scholars from, or connected with, The University of Auckland will share their knowledge and skills on a selection of topics from geology and engineering to media and education.