Whose disaster? Disaster response as a conflicted field between cooperation and competition

Abstract

Disasters reveal solidarity as well as contestation in many different aspects. This article deals with the increasing significance of spontaneous volunteers (here non-official responders to disasters) and the resulting impacts on the established population protection system in Germany. Considering respective changes and differences, it explores subliminal and manifested conflicts among official and non-official responders. Based on a survey among disaster officials (n = 1957), qualitative interviews (n = 12) and workshop outcomes, the findings reveal competing opportunities to participate in disaster response, clashes of logics of disaster response practice, challenges in task distribution, and points of friction due to shared public recognition. This article uses a Bourdieusian lens to analyze these obstacles to cooperation against the background of habitus-related role expectations, shifting dispositions, newly emerging demands for official disaster response, and altered volunteering reward patterns and attractiveness. It concludes with a discussion on underlying hurdles for cooperation among different disaster responders, changing social norms as the significance of non-official volunteers increases, cascading effects of different conflict lines, and effects of societal dynamics on disaster response systems.