Permanent Disaster Volunteers: Where Do They Fit?

Abstract

Voluntary action scholars and disaster researchers have paid little atten tion to the permanent volunteer in the context of large-scale social crisis. In contrast, there have been many studies on particular types of volun teering behavior in the everyday setting, such as bystander intervention, while many other studies have explored the personality profile and orga nizational settings of full-time career emergency workers, such as police, ambulance, and fire officers. The comparative lack of systematic inquiry on disaster volunteerism has implications for countries like Australia, where the disaster management system relies heavily on a trained and readily available unpaid citizenry. In particular, little practical material is currently available that deals with the management of permanent volun teers as a specific emergency worker group. In an effort to remedy this imbalance and encourage further study of this group, this article explores the characteristics of permanent disaster volunteerism and their location within the existing knowledge framework of volunteerism and voluntary organizations.