Improvisation is adaptive action created under novel conditions when plans, routines, or formal structures are insufficient [@kendrawachtendorf2006].
Within emergent disaster response, the term matters because disasters regularly generate needs and relations that cannot be fully anticipated. Improvisation is therefore not a sign that response has failed. It is a core capacity through which people and organizations discover what needs to be done under changing conditions [@kendrawachtendorf2006; @quarantelli1995].
Related terms
- Problem-Solving Model - the method frame that treats improvisation as necessary rather than deviant
- Distributed Sensemaking - the process through which actors collectively determine what improvisation should do
- Improvisation and Resourcefulness in Emergent Disaster Response - a research text on this capacity