There is an increasing emphasis on the diversity of disaster volunteering among disaster researchers. Our aim was to review the extent to which, and in what forms, emergent groups in the aftermath of natural disasters are examined as a topic of research. We review previous crisis and disaster management research, focusing particularly on those parts of the disaster research literature which treat with volunteerism. We describe and discuss how this research has evolved 1960–2016, and analyse how different forms of volunteerism, particularly emergent groups, have been researched following nine natural disasters. We utilize the Disaster Research Center typology to systematize and categorize research from different disaster contexts. The review shows that research on disaster management is fraught with an understanding of organization in disaster contexts based on the primacy of established formal organizations. We suggest a more fine‐tuned conceptualization of disaster volunteerism and we call for further research on actor motivations.
Both crisis research and crisis management policy suggest that crisis management experiences a “participatory turn” and it seems to be a renewed interest in the topic of crisis volunteerism. However, the voice of volunteer organizations, paradoxically, appears to be missing in research. This article builds on an interview study (26 interviews) with different types of voluntary organizations in Sweden. It explores two aspects of crisis volunteerism (i) the diversity of crisis volunteerism and (ii) the changing landscape of crisis volunteerism. The Disaster Research Center (DRC) typology is used to understand different types of volunteering and how different organizational types relate to each other. The empirical material shows that a significant amount of voluntary engagement with relevance to crisis management takes place outside the realm of core crisis management actors. An important finding is that the number of avenues where voluntary engagement is needed has expanded, and as a result, we need to engage new volunteer groups in society. Hence, the study suggests a more adaptive and inclusive understanding of the phenomenon of crisis volunteerism.
Railway and subway systems are regarded as being vulnerable to terrorism. This article examines different kinds of vulnerabilities in preparedness for terroristinduced crises targeting rail bound traffic. Many discussions about critical infrastructures and their vulnerability to breakdowns and certain hazards are often discussed from the perspective of technical control systems or advanced mitigation efforts. This article contributes with another perspective. It is suggested that a wider perspective on what constitutes vulnerability is needed and the literature on disasters and crises is therefore informative. Relying on 20 interviews with actors from rail bound traffic and Sweden's crisis management system, the article focuses on different actors' own perceptions of their preparedness. The results show that the involved actors not only understand vulnerabilities in preparedness to be a matter of shortcomings in technical security systems or in the ability to secure trains from acts of antagonistic violence. Rather, they identify two additional significant vulnerabilities. First, increased organizational fragmentation in the sector is perceived as creating vulnerability in crisis management preparedness. Second, the failure to ensure that relevant actors have a cognitive and mental preparedness is seen as creating vulnerability.
In this research note, we present results from a review of research on local resilience in relation to radicalization in public health, social work, crisis management, and community policing using terrorism studies as a point of departure. In order to identify agreements between literatures, we focus on how local resilience is understood, how it is said to be promoted, and how this knowledge could be synthesized. We show that resilience by and large is understood as both a process and a capacity underpinned by cooperation, social networks, and community resources and that an initial mapping of existing strengths and resources is pivotal for local resilience-building.
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