A grounded analysis of participation mechanisms of social rescue organisations in China following the Wenchuan earthquake

Abstract

Since the Wenchuan earthquake on 12 May, 2008, social organisations involved in emergency management in China have been displaying an increasingly important role. The aim of this paper was to analyse the evolution of the participation of social rescue organisations in China in the past ten years. The research determines some related laws and associated problems. According to a grounded analysis of the characteristics, advantages, and evolution of the participation mechanism of blue sky rescue (BSR) and the rescue team of ramunion (RTR) in social rescues, suggestions are proposed to improve the participation mechanism of social rescue organisations from four aspects: system guarantee, organisational governance, communication and coordination, and social support.1 Moreover, the network management mechanism of social rescue organisations was also studied to improve disaster prevention and relief networks.