Mid Sweden University

In the summer of 2018, both rescue services and volunteers fought against the extensive forest fires that spread over the northern parts of Sweden. The challenges were many and one of the most obvious one was the lack of resources, both material and human. This lack of resources, together with the long distances that characterize the rural northern parts of Sweden, have been highlighted in subsequent evaluations as one of the main reasons for the heavily spread of the fires. The lack of resources in itself can be understood against the background of several years of dismantling and centralization of the Swedish fire service. However, the responses from local community was enormous during the forest fires of 2018. Local volunteers, spontaneous as well as organized, assisted in firefighting; in providing food and services; in offering shelter for evacuated and many other things. In disaster research, volunteer activities have often been described as something that “fills the void” when official resources are scarce. This seems to be particular true in rural contexts. This paper applies a critical perspective on rural disaster volunteerism by framing it as an expression of spatial vulnerability and peripheralization: as something that is performed as a compensatory act (cf. Lundgren 2021) in rural areas affected by social dismantling. In other words, both place and politics are central in understanding (rural) voluntary activity. Inspired by the theoretical concept geographies of volunteerism (Fyfe & Milligan 2004; Milligan, 2007), this paper argues that people makes sense of volunteer initiatives in relation to both the place where these activities take place and in relation to the power relations associated with this place.

References:

Fyfe, N.R. & Milligan, C. (2003). ”Space, citizenship, and voluntarism: Critical reflections on the voluntary welfare sector in Glasgow. Environment and Planning A 35, 2069-2086.

Lundgren, A. (2021b). ”’För att vi ska kunna leva… överleva!’ Frivilligengagemang som rurala motståndspraktiker?” I: Lundgren, A. (red.) (2021). Makt, moral och motstånd. Engagemang för norrländska landsbygder. Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskap: Etnologiska skrifter nr.69. Umeå Universitet.

Milligan, C. (2007). ”Geographies of voluntarism: Mapping the terrain.” Geography Compass 1(2), 183 – 199.