ABSTRACT

Most recent research on unaffiliated volunteers in disasters has focused on coordination, integration, and management of labour itself. A less prominent line of research focuses on qualities emergent groups of unaffiliated volunteers can contribute to emergency response or recovery that official organisations may be less equipped to provide, including: organisational agility, flexible problem-solving, and early access to technological expertise and innovation, especially in the domain of information and communication technology (ICT). During recent hurricanes and floods in coastal Louisiana and Texas, groups such as the Cajun Navy utilised Zello – an agile variation of Short Message Service (SMS) that converts a cellphone into a universal walkie talkie – to coordinate emergency response and recovery for disaster victims. This paper analyses the emergence of the volunteer-based ‘Cajun Army’ and its bricoleur-like assemblage of ICT applications like Zello, Facebook, and other media to recruit and coordinate volunteers, manage the recovery needs of disaster victims, and deploy resources in the field. The Cajun Army case study serves as an example of how technological innovation is improvised by the emergent voluntary sector in the midst of crises and can be stabilised for repeated contributions to emergency management.

摘要

最近有关灾难中的非亲属志愿者的研究集中在劳动本身的协调，整合和管理上。不太突出的研究重点是非组织志愿者的素质新兴群体可以为官方组织可能没有能力提供的紧急响应或恢复做出贡献，包括：组织敏捷性，灵活的问题解决能力以及及早获得技术专业知识和创新的能力，特别是在信息和通信技术（ICT）领域。在路易斯安那州和德克萨斯州沿海地区最近发生的飓风和洪水期间，诸如Cajun海军之类的组织利用Zello（一种短消息服务（SMS）的灵活变体，将手机转换为通用对讲机）来协调灾难受害者的紧急响应和恢复。本文分析了以志愿人员为基础的“ Cajun军”的出现，以及像布洛勒那样的ICT应用程序组合，例如Zello，Facebook和其他媒体，以招募和协调志愿人员，管理灾难受害者的恢复需求并在灾区中部署资源。领域。Cajun陆军的案例研究是一个例子，说明在危机中新兴的志愿部门如何改进技术创新，并且可以稳定该技术创新，以便为应急管理做出反复贡献。