Social Media Movements and Spontaneous Volunteer Action in Times of Coronavirus: exploring official attitudes towards citizens’ efforts

Affiliated volunteer organisations have commonly aided emergency response and civil protection in disasters. Their activity is often based on contractual relationships with the responsible authorities. According to BuildERS project research, at least in Estonia, Finland, Norway, Belgium and Italy their supportive capacity is noted in the official preparedness plans. The Red Cross is a key player in organizing various kinds of volunteer resources. Most common are voluntary rescuers. Aside this affiliated activity there are an increasing number of spontaneous, unaffiliated volunteers providing help and support for disaster survivorsSocial media tools have been a central platform for organizing peer support. In the European countries studied by BuildERS project the engagement of unaffiliated volunteerism is not regulated. Reactions by official responders are mainly cautious or even rejecting. Challenge is to find a balance between control and contingency. Indeed, spontaneous volunteers can achieve something that the governmental actors, authorities or even affiliated volunteers do not have the resources or the capacity to do. In the case of the coronavirus, most citizens seem to be aware that with mutual effort they can protect those most at risk and alleviate the consequences of the crisis. At this early stage, citizens have acted rather quickly. Some official, organized NGOs have been able to understand and utilize people’s willingness to help in the crisis and have offered a pre-existing structure for the unaffiliated volunteer effort. We will look at the social movements and volunteer action that the coronavirus has promoted in Finland. We will conduct a SWOT analysis analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to spontaneous volunteerism during the crisis. We will also analyze the willingness of governmental actors and affiliated NGOs to aid in the unaffiliated volunteer effort.