When crisis volunteerism is enacted, citizens from all walks of life mobilise, and interaction is required between numerous individuals, organisations, authorities and stakeholders involved in the response work. This was evident in Sweden in 2018 when forest fires engulfed parts of the country. At the time, digitalisation and information systems were completely lacking. At the same time, it is noted that many IS solutions that could enable crisis response volunteerism never reach this practice area. Studies have been performed to explore how the crisis volunteerism context needs to be understood with a view to enabling digital transformation and relevant IS design initiatives. Based on these studies, this paper discusses crisis volunteerism and the crisis environment and introduces a preliminary meta-model for understanding these and other components central to the practice of crisis volunteerism.
Previous information systems (IS) research gives insight, both theoretically and practically, on the
potential of IS and digital transformation (DT) in the public sector to enhance and support crisis
volunteerism (CV). The lack of digitalisation and IS observed during the Swedish forest fires poses
questions of why CV is not being transformed in a similar manner to other important practice areas
in the public sector and what needs to be done to remedy this? Crisis managements scepticism to
voluntary contributions, in particular more spontaneous or unaffiliated contributions may be one
problem
The overall aim of the full research project is to facilitate an understanding of crisis volunteerism (CV) that can be used to enable public sector Digital Transformation (DT) in a manner that will significantly enhance the overall societal response in crises and disasters. In this paper, due to space limitations, only one of the main components of CV, the crisis environment, is developed to demonstrate the approach. The more specific research questions posed in this paper are therefore 1) what do we need to know about crisis volunteerism and its environment to facilitate digital transformation and IS design for CV? 2) What are implications does this knowledge have for crisis management and crisis volunteerism practitioners in Sweden? Finally the question of how future ISCV research needs to be directed in view of these findings is addressed. In this paper the results of a literature study on CV and the crisis environment as well as DT and IS design are presented in sections 2 and 3. The research approach and description of the Swedish forest fires case is relayed in section 4. Results outlining the crisis environment context, based on the study of the Swedish forest fires case, is reported in section 5. These results are discussed and the research questions above are addressed in the final section with discussion and conclusions where a preliminary meta-model for crisis volunteerism is presented.
Within the environment component, which is focused on in this paper, the main issue for ISCV
research is collaborative structures and in particular collaborative interactions between
stakeholders. Parallels are also drawn to developments within e-government and for example
coproduction of services
The terms digitalisation and digital transformation (DT) are defined in terms of a process with the
power and potential to restructure and transform organisations, institutions or even society
Extreme fire risk was observed in Sweden from early May 2018. By July the situation had escalated severely, and at the end of July and beginning of August several of the most critical forests fires started. The firefighting efforts that ensued are described by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) as the biggest to ever take place within the European Union. The two municipalities in the north of Sweden that were observed in this research are among those locations most severely affected by the fires. These are sparsely populated areas where forestry is a key component of the local economy. Many of the individual fires were far beyond the capacity of local fire and rescue services and the, raged at up to five different locations simultaenly. This is when CV contributions escalated to involve in excess of 1600 individual volunteers over a period of more than two weeks. The volunteer co-ordinators from these two municipalities alone managed in excess of 330 operative volunteers each day during this period.
This research adheres to a constructive ontology and applies an interpretive approach
In Sweden the collaborative structures applied and established during the forest fires crisis of 2018 had varying degrees of formality and evolved during the entire crisis event. On the local level in the municipalities studied, two formal established CV organisations became the central coordinators of all forms of volunteer activity, including other established CV organisations, non-CV organisations (e.g. football clubs or churches), emergent groups (e.g. via social media) and unaffiliated individuals. Channels were also open between authorities and non-formal CV stakeholders according to local respondents. On the national level the SRC assumed responsibility for matching requests for volunteer assistance with offers of assistance from unaffiliated volunteers. Figure 2 demonstrates the complexity of the interactive structures observed in the response to the Swedish forest fires.
The social environment in municipality 1 and 2 can be characterised as rural and sparsely populated and was influenced by the fact that many were holidaying in the area at the time. The natural environment was characterised by high temperatures and drought during the spring with lightning storms and winds that influenced the development of the fires. Finally the physical environment included natural elements that both proved to be constraints and opportunities. Numerous lakes facilitated for example water bombing and forestry infrastructure could be used to access the fire locations while long distances and multiple fire locations provided challenges. Both Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) chiefs relate to the invaluable contribution of local farmers and entrepreneurs who provided much needed capacity in the response. They have however difficulties saying if these resources are in fact voluntary or not. Underlying this confusion is the Swedish Act (2003:778) on Protection Against Accidents which incorporates a form of service conscription (Tjänsteplikt) at the discretion of the FRS. This law gives the FRS powers to conscript assistance qualifications and physical capabilities. It is stipulated that first choice should be made among those who volunteer their assistance. Due to the volume of volunteers and scale of operations, it was not possible to follow normal procedure for documenting and compensating those conscripted. FRSC 1 in particular relates to the ensuing difficulties in determining who in fact is a volunteer or not.
In both local and national coordination volunteers cultural background was at times given relevance, for example noting challenges associated with the participation of volunteers with different cultural backgrounds. The influence of both explicit and tacit institutional arrangements (structures, norms, traditions, logics etc.) are however discussed at greater length. The impact of institutional arrangements in the crisis environment are noted to be relevant in creating and maintaining barriers for efficient and effective CV in Sweden. These barriers or dilemmas are for example a) an involvement exclusion paradox in relation to unaffiliated volunteers (FRSC and MSB respondents) whereby unaffiliated volunteer contributions, while required, are seldom recognised or unwelcomed by authorities, b) Uncertain expectations regarding the capacity of formal CV organisations (MSB respondents) and c) Lack of alignment of institutional arrangements in relation to the current reality of CV including spontaneity, episodic volunteerism and advanced self
These problems are interconnected. The MSB Official 2 points out the failings of public authorities in general, in terms of preparedness to use established CV organisations (18 formal established CV organisations appointed by MSB). MSB Official 1 also expresses extreme wariness and reluctance to consider unaffiliated volunteerism as worthy of development using digitalisation. While the considerable decline of capacity in established CV organisations in Sweden, ongoing for decades, is acknowledged by the MSB, there would appear to be a reluctance to acknowledge CV reality where citizens, thanks to digitalisation, have considerable powers to self-organise and respond spontaneously and independently of authorities.
Local volunteer coordinators explain how they stepped in to fill the gaps they perceived in the authorities crisis respone I saw chaos with volunteers stopping FRS from doing their jobs. We offered our services and took over the task (CV coordination) (VC1) Nobody was managing volunteers, so I grabbed a hold (of the task) (VC2). The local volunteer coordinators demonstrate that institutional arrangements in Sweden were adapted to override the inclusion exclusion paradox and facilitate the participation of relevant volunteer resources, regardless of previous affiliation. The establishment of formal coordination was in other words spontaneous and unsupported by pre-made agreements as MSB Official 2 suggests should be the case. Discrepancies between the answers from local respective national MSB respondents can be presumed to stem from their different roles in crisis response. The local respondents related to their recent experiences from the forest fires and their natural access and capabilities to operationalise large scale coordination of volunteers, regardless of affiliation. The MSB officials on the other hand, are relating to the issue more so from a strategic view point for example emphasising the need for better crisis preparedness, viewing agreements between authorities and formal established CV organisations as the primary tool and do not show initiative to support the interests or needs of the local respondents as experienced during the forest fires. However MSB do recognise the need for a national volunteer coordination function and made arrangements with the national Swedish Red Cross to perform this function during the ongoing crisis which have also been extended in renewed agreements afterwards.
The findings from the studies have been combined to compile Figure 1.
This model relays the main components of the CV and DT meta-model and their relationships.
The model expands the crisis environment component to demonstrate attributes of the component.
This modelling approach, although similar to
Now to return to the research questions posed at the beginning of this paper. The first question was what do we need to know about CV and the crisis environment to facilitate IS design for CV? In section 3 it is clarified that it is necessary to take in broader (or secondary) contextual factors to a greater degree than has previously been custom in IS research on CV. It is also clarified that there is a need to find ways to bridge the gap and translate these broader contextual factors into primary factors for the purposes of designing and developing specific IS applications. The literature study reveals a fragmented research area where little or no effort is devoted to providing a broader and more holistic understanding of CV. The meta-model presented here represents an attempt to piece together components identified in the literature study and demonstrate how it is possible to both zoom out to observe broader contextual factors and also zoom in to expand and develop a single component, as for is done with the crisis environment component in the results section.
The second question relates to the empirical context observed in this paper and asks, what are the implications of this research for crisis management and crisis volunteerism practitioners in Sweden? In the Swedish context the lack of digitalisation for CV suggests that the current route chosen by formal crisis management stakeholders (both authorities and volunteer organisations) has not seriously considered DT as an enabler. Input from the respondents suggests that that Swedish not aligned with the reality of CV during a large scale crisis when there are more interactions and stakeholders in play than are planned for. There are clearly institutional barriers. CV, although not fully acknowledged by crisis management, stands out in the results of this research as a distinct practice area in its own right covering a broad range of stakeholders and interactions deserving greater attention by both researchers and practitioners. Future research based on the CV metal-model has the potential to contribute to a significant improvement in the overall understanding required to take further steps to 1) observe what aspects of crisis volunteerism are most relevant to include in future public sector and e-government DT research and initiatives and 2) find better ways to communicate and translate contextual understandings to the IS application design and development stages.
About the Author Maria Murphy works as a PhD fellow at the department for Information Systems and Digitalization (INDIG) at Linköping University. Marias holds degrees in human relations, sociology and statistics and data analysis from Linköping University. Prior to embarking on a PhD fellowship Maria has had a career within both the public and private sectors working with analytics and business processes.