Street Swags and Networks in Disaster Events

Street swags is an initiative and a design done in 2005 by Jean Madden in order to provide the homeless people with a “survival kit” that will allow them to sleep and live a little better.

The production of swags is done through a well-organized network that operates in different levels. Private and public institutions donate and sponsor the product, prison inmates sew the swags, school students package them up with blankets and hygiene packs and a variety of organizations and groups distribute them. These networks were very useful in the Victorian bushfire disaster in 2002, where hundreds of victims were provided with street swags. This showed the ability that the community had to

A series of linked actions where different levels of participation in a local and national scale takes plays, show us how networks function in a disaster event, generating a quick benefit for those in need and taking a variety of forms (Siembeda, 2005). In the case of the Victorian bushfire, national organizations such as the Salvation Army were linked to more local organizations that produce the desired product for helping the fire victims.

REFERENCES

Siembieda, William J. (2005) ‘Recovery from Disasters: Challenges for Low-income Communities in the Americas’ in Albrechts, Louis & Mandelbaum, Seymour, J. (ed) The Network Society: a new context for planning. New York:Routledge, pp.197-210

www.streetswags.org

http://www.homelessforums.org/showthread.php?t=3792

Coordination in the Network Society

Ozharvest is a charity that operates in Sydney, Canberra, Wollongong, Queanbeyan and Newcastle, collecting unwanted food and redistributing it to different organizations and people in need. They are trying to expand this program to all major Australian cities.

The dynamic goes like this: Restaurants and catering industries interested in donating their excess food, contact Ozharvest through their website or by telephone (money donation can also be made), delivery is done through coordinating vans and volunteers and the benefited groups include more than 200 charity groups,  both well known or low profile organizations.

With this example, we can observe how networks can be understood as a form of coordination of social interactions where the most important part is a ‘trustworthy cooperation between autonomous, but interdependent actors, who work together for a limited period of time, taking into consideration the interests of their partner, and being aware that this form of coordination is the best way to attain their own particular objectives’ (Frey, 2005: p.188).

REFERENCES

Frey, Klaus. (2005) ‘ICT-enforced Community Networks for Sustainable Development and Social Inclusion’ in Albrechts, Louis & Mandelbaum, Seymour, J. (ed) The Network Society: a new context for planning. New York:Routledge, pp.197-210