Researcher Summary
My research is concerned with the lived experience of disrupted environments, with a particular focus on issues of social and community wellbeing. I examine the processes that contribute to disruption and difficulty in particular places, and seek to identify the kinds of collaborations, policies, and practices able to facilitate wellbeing within them.
My early work considered rural and urban places disrupted by economic restructuring and neoliberal welfare reform, while more recent projects have focused on disaster-affected places. In examining a range of disrupted environments, I have given close attention to the nature and relational constitution of spaces within these settings that some experience as supportive, enabling and even therapeutic. Empirical investigations in this regard have encompassed community drop-in centres, retreat centres, respite care agencies, residential care facilities, and urban community farms.
I am currently the Managing Editor of the New Zealand Geographer, and a member of the editorial board for Social and Cultural Geography and the Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies.
Current and recent projects:
• The Post-Disaster City: Recovery and Transition in Christchurch, New Zealand
This co-authored book project examines processes of recovery and transition following the 2010-11 Canterbury earthquakes. We draw on empirical research from Christchurch to consider how cities and communities negotiate environmental disruption, whether slow or rapid onset.
• Fostering Community Well-Being through Urban Agriculture
Funded by the National Science Challenge, this project examines the efforts of an urban community farm in Christchurch to support youth well-being and creatively reinvest its economic surplus.
