Emergent disaster response uses several recurring analytic frameworks to understand how grassroots action appears, stabilizes, and sometimes persists. The most important are the frameworks of emergent groups, therapeutic community, convergence, solidarity not charity, and self-recovery [@quarantelli1984; @gurney1977; @twiggmosel2017; @spade2020article; @twigg2021].
Emergent groups
The first framework is emergent citizen groups. This framework explains how new groups arise around disaster-created tasks that existing organizations are not already performing [@quarantelli1984; @stallingsquarantelli1985]. It is strong at naming new organization without reducing it to chaos.
Therapeutic community
The second framework is the therapeutic community. This one works at the level of broader social relations rather than a single group. It frames disaster as a condition in which intensified cooperation and collective purpose can briefly become widespread [@gurney1977].
Convergence
The third framework is convergence behavior, including material convergence. This framework emphasizes flows of people, information, and supplies into disaster zones [@twiggmosel2017]. It is especially useful for understanding why grassroots response has to manage influx as well as scarcity.
Solidarity not charity
The fourth framework is solidarity not charity. This framework makes the political relation inside response explicit. It distinguishes horizontal participation and shared struggle from hierarchical aid delivery [@spade2020article].
Self-recovery
The fifth framework is self-recovery. This framework is strongest in housing and long-haul rebuilding. It asks how affected people can shape their own recovery pathways and what forms of outside support preserve rather than displace that agency [@twigg2021].
Sources
- University of Delaware: Quarantelli, Emergent Citizen Groups in Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Activities
- JSTOR: Stallings and Quarantelli, Emergent Citizen Groups and Emergency Management
- University of Delaware: Gurney, The Therapeutic Community Revisited
- DOI: Twigg and Mosel, Emergent Groups and Spontaneous Volunteers in Urban Disaster Response
- DOI: Dean Spade, Solidarity Not Charity
- DOI: Twigg, The evolution of shelter self-recovery