UC Berkeley

The great Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami of December 2004 hit many countries in South and Southeast Asia and affected millions of individuals. As such, it led to one of the biggest reconstruction projects in the world, whether considered in terms of the scale of project, number of people impacted, number of institutions involved, total budget, or land area coverage. Hundreds of multinational design and construction firms were involved with the reconstruction along with relevant institutions and donors from various countries, including Indonesia, the country most impacted.

My dissertation is an attempt to find a more effective and efficient means of addressing this complex situation by applying the lessons learned from the Aceh post-disaster tsunami recovery process. Investigating stakeholders' interest in this complex context has been the central issue of my dissertation work. To do so, I have applied theories, particularly those regarding collaboration, that explain the interactional or organizational context as the main tools for my investigation. As I have done so, I have come to realize that although the term collaboration was widely used during the course of the Aceh recovery process as a description of the process of working together to achieve specific goals, it is questionable whether the Aceh stakeholders engaged in true collaboration.

The discussion of the urgency of collaboration in complex situations in this dissertation is based on recognition of the importance of using this approach to examine the nature of collaboration from various perspectives and to measure progress during the recovery process. It must be emphasized that collaboration is neither a goal in the process nor a solution to its problems. As such, theories on collaboration are used as tools with which to examine the dynamics that existed among the project stakeholders in their work together in the recovery of Aceh. As examination of the current problems in urban planning and design in developing countries has indicated that they arise from complex issues among the stakeholders involved, this investigation of the reconstruction process in Aceh allows for a unique means of identifying the lessons learned from this experience that can be applied to many types of projects.