Planning to improvise: the importance of creativity and flexibility in crisis response

Webb, Gary R.; Chevreau, Francois Regis

doi:10.1504/ijem.2006.010282

Cited by 86 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Studies of improvisation and innovation in emergencies and disasters have tended to focus on formal organisations (e.g. Ross, 1976;Harrald, 1996;Webb and Chevreau, 2006;Mendonҫa and Wallace, 2007). However, Kendra and Wachtendorf (2007, p.318) consider community innovation and disasters, noting that innovation is a capacity or process whereby a community '… does something new in the face of crisis, either a crisis that is potential or one that is realized'.…”

Section: Emergent Volunteerismmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of informal volunteerism in emergencies and disasters: Definition, opportunities and challenges

Whittaker

McLennan

Handmer

2015

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

364

346

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Despite highly specialised and capable emergency management systems, ordinary citizens are usually first on the scene in an emergency or disaster, and remain long after official services have ceased. Citizens often play vital roles in helping those affected to respond and recover, and can provide invaluable assistance to official agencies. However, in most developed countries, emergency and disaster management relies largely on a workforce of professionals and, to varying degrees, volunteers affiliated with official agencies. Those who work outside of such systems have tended to be viewed as a nuisance or liability, and their efforts are often undervalued. Given increasing disaster risk worldwide due to population growth, urban development and climate change, it is likely that 'informal' volunteers will provide much of the additional surge capacity required to respond to more frequent emergencies and disasters in the future. This paper considers the role of informal volunteers in emergency and disaster management. Definitions of volunteerism are reviewed and it is argued that there is an overemphasis on volunteering within, and for, state and formal organisations. We offer a broader definition of 'informal volunteerism' that recognises the many ways ordinary citizens volunteer their time, knowledge, skills and resources to help others in times of crisis. Two broad types of informal volunteerism are identified -emergent and extending-and the implications for emergency and disaster management are considered. Particular attention is given to increasing 'digital volunteerism' due to the greater accessibility of sophisticated but simple information and communication technologies. Culture and legal liability are identified as key barriers to greater participation of informal volunteers. We argue that more adaptive and inclusive models of emergency and disaster management are needed to harness the capacities and resilience that exist within and across communities.

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Section: Emergent Volunteerismmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of informal volunteerism in emergencies and disasters: Definition, opportunities and challenges

Whittaker

McLennan

Handmer

2015

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

364

346

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Severe accidents often create unexpected conditions and problems that need initiative and innovation [8,55]. Studies on initiative and innovation in the emergency and crisis situations tend to concentrate on official organizations [56][57][58]. Nevertheless, Kendra and Wachtendorf [8,49] by considering the community's innovation and natural disasters mentioned that innovation is a capacity or process that by its virtue, a society performs a new act to encounter crisis, whether it is a potential crisis or the one that has already occurred.…”

Section: Emergency or Immediate Voluntary Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Volunteer Citizens in Response to Accidents and Disasters

Aminizade

Moghaddam

Jam

et al. 2017

HDQ

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Background: Many organizations, especially at the time of accidents, disasters, and critical conditions, cannot provide their services without the presence of volunteers. When accidents and disasters occur, the first persons who normally appear at the scene are citizens. Volunteer citizens with the skills and local knowledge can play important roles when accidents and disasters occur and can provide valuable assistance to the relief forces. The current article aimed at examining the role of volunteer citizens in response to accidents and disasters. Materials and Methods:The current study examined the published articles from 2000 to 2016 based on the following keywords: informal volunteers in the disasters, challenges facing volunteer citizens in accidents and disasters, informal volunteers and disasters in local and foreign electronic databases including SID, Magiran, Iran Medex, ISC, Google Scholar, PubMed, ISI, and Scopus.Results: Based on the search strategy, 50 articles were examined and the keywords, definitions, volunteer roles, role of volunteers in accidents and disasters, various types of informal voluntary activities, and volunteer citizens' participation were examined. Conclusion:Studies referred to the roles, definitions, and challenges that informal volunteers face in various stages of accidents and disasters and the obvious point in the research was that more adaptive and comprehensive crisis and emergency management models are needed to utilize the capacities and flexibility of volunteers available within and between communities in disasters, and the network structure management can be helpful to manage the volunteers.

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“…In MDC-2, society, the shortest timescale includes events such as creativity in online collaboration and unconventional self-coordinated rapid responses to contingencies (Webb and Chevreau 2006;Crespo et al 2007). Social processes that span weeks to months in their planning and execution include: word-of-mouth communication, and innovative bottom-up structures such as social movements in politics, sports, and festivals (Godes and Mayzlin 2004;Shepard 2011).…”

Section: Time In MDCmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-dimensional creativity: a computational perspective

Sosa

Gero

2015

International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation

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This paper presents a multi-dimensional perspective for the study of creativity and formulates a framework for computational creativity that consists of 1) Culture; 2) Society; 3) Groups; 4) Individual, and 5) Brain. This framework enables the definition of functional relationships among these scales, and captures the effects of time within each scale. Its relevance and usefulness are shown firstly by classifying recent studies of computational creativity, and secondly by illustrating multi-dimensional approaches to the computational study of creativity with sample scenarios grown in a simulation system. The paper closes offering modelling guidelines for the computational studies of creativity.

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Planning to improvise: the importance of creativity and flexibility in crisis response

Cited by 86 publications

References 13 publications

A review of informal volunteerism in emergencies and disasters: Definition, opportunities and challenges

A review of informal volunteerism in emergencies and disasters: Definition, opportunities and challenges

The Role of Volunteer Citizens in Response to Accidents and Disasters

Multi-dimensional creativity: a computational perspective

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