Research Report: a survey of spontaneous volunteers

Abstract

When a disaster occurs, people volunteer their assistance for the aid of those affected. Broadly, this assistance can be donations of money or goods, loans of equipment, and donations of time and labour. In the ‘disasters’ and ‘sociology’ literature, these actions are described as emergent behaviour, convergent behaviour and, in the case of volunteers themselves, spontaneous behaviour. This report is based on applied social research with people who spontaneously volunteered to assist others affected by a major disaster, and who had registered formally with an agency.