The role of action sports in post-disaster recovery Research Completed

Title

The role of action sports in post-disaster recovery

Lead Author

Holly Thorpe

Organisation(s)

Department of Sport and Leisure Studies, School of Education, University of Waikato

Publication Year

2013

Publisher

Sport and Dev.org: www.sportanddev.org

Contacts

Corresponding author:

 

Holly Thorpe: hthorpe@waikato.ac.nz

 

Senior Lecturer, Department of Sport and Leisure Studies

Faculty of Education

University of Waikato

Hamilton, New Zealand

 

Abstract

A spate of recent natural disasters has prompted many scholars working in the social sciences and humanities to examine the economic, social and psychological impact of natural disasters, such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, and volcanoes. To date, very little research has examined the role of recreational sport and physical activity in the recovery and resilience of individuals and communities affected by natural disaster.

Sport—and particularly action sports (e.g. surfing, skateboarding, mountain biking, climbing)—may seem trivial pursuits in the wake of a natural disaster. However, in the weeks and months following a natural disaster, as individuals and communities attempt to re-establish familiar lifestyles and routines, sport and physical activity can play an important role in individual recovery and community resilience.

Interested to understand how committed ‘lifestyle sport’ participants adapted their action sport participation in the changing socio-cultural-economic-physical geography of post-earthquake, I travelled to Christchurch in March 2012. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 surfers, skateboarders, climbers and mountain bikers living in Christchurch before, during and after the earthquakes.

This study is among the first qualitative examinations of the effects of natural disaster on residents’ everyday sporting practices. For the Christchurch residents in this project, beaches, indoor skate parks, and bouldering routes became “therapeutic landscapes”—their sporting participation in these spaces helped some escape (if only temporarily) from the stresses of daily life.

 

Keywords:

disaster recovery, sport for development, natural disasters, earrthquakes, lifestyle sport, surfing, climbing, mountain-biking, skateboarding

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Added

February 15, 2013

Last Modified

February 15, 2013