About this Research Topic
This Research Topic aims to assemble knowledge across disparate case studies, methodologies, epistemologies, and disciplines to understand how grassroots response to disasters and humanitarian emergencies emerges and evolves. From conflict and climate change to increased migration and the recent global pandemic, the world is facing humanitarian challenges at unprecedented frequency, scope, and scale. Globalization of news media, travel, and crowdfund mobilization have brought these crises into the homes of everyday citizens and empowered them to start their own aid initiatives. These small, often impromptu organizations, sometimes referred to as Citizen Initiatives for Global Solidarity (CIGS), “pop-up” to meet emergent needs. Popups are not new, but they are becoming increasingly influential aid actors. Popups rapidly enter (and often exit) the aid scene in ways that challenge governance, project sustainability, and efficiency of resource allocation, but they can also fill unmet needs and serve as watchdogs for traditional aid organizations. While some popups are short-lived, others do develop into more permanent organizations and evolve into NGOs and INGOs.
The UN has specifically acknowledged civic engagement, what we broadly define here as volunteer groups, as important stakeholders for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development internationally recognized that volunteers’ knowledge and resources are important for supporting the achievement of the SDGs. Even response to the recent COVID-19 pandemic illustrated how citizens informally and formally organize to assist in a crisis, particularly when governments are unable to meet people’s changing needs. There has been comparatively more research about these organizations in a development context. The papers in this collection, however, will add to the body of knowledge about these civic and citizen-run organizations and initiatives that respond to disaster and humanitarian emergencies, such as during a refugee and forced migration situation. Broadly, the papers will add to understanding about these organizations’ emergence, sustainability, evolution of scope and responsibilities over time, and their trajectory towards becoming full-fledged NGOs and INGOs, or ultimately ceasing to exist.
This Research Topic covers domestic and international topics related to civil society and citizen-initiated disaster and humanitarian emergency response. Our intention is for this collection to bring to light the intersection of research across disciplines, regional focus, and even specific topic focus to understand how these organizations influence (for better and for worse) the response to an increasing number of destabilizing events, from conflict to forced migration to climate change response. We welcome contributions from scholars of all disciplinary and regional focuses, and highly encourage contributions from scholars living in contexts or with lived experiences of disaster and humanitarian emergency response.
The UN has specifically acknowledged civic engagement, what we broadly define here as volunteer groups, as important stakeholders for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development internationally recognized that volunteers’ knowledge and resources are important for supporting the achievement of the SDGs. Even response to the recent COVID-19 pandemic illustrated how citizens informally and formally organize to assist in a crisis, particularly when governments are unable to meet people’s changing needs. There has been comparatively more research about these organizations in a development context. The papers in this collection, however, will add to the body of knowledge about these civic and citizen-run organizations and initiatives that respond to disaster and humanitarian emergencies, such as during a refugee and forced migration situation. Broadly, the papers will add to understanding about these organizations’ emergence, sustainability, evolution of scope and responsibilities over time, and their trajectory towards becoming full-fledged NGOs and INGOs, or ultimately ceasing to exist.
This Research Topic covers domestic and international topics related to civil society and citizen-initiated disaster and humanitarian emergency response. Our intention is for this collection to bring to light the intersection of research across disciplines, regional focus, and even specific topic focus to understand how these organizations influence (for better and for worse) the response to an increasing number of destabilizing events, from conflict to forced migration to climate change response. We welcome contributions from scholars of all disciplinary and regional focuses, and highly encourage contributions from scholars living in contexts or with lived experiences of disaster and humanitarian emergency response.
Keywords: CIGS, disaster response, humanitarian response, conflict, climate change, migration, refugees, civic engagement
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
