Communicative Reconstruction of Resilience Labor: Identity/Identification in Disaster-Relief Workers

Abstract

Drawing from the structurational theory of identification [Scott, Corman, & Cheney, 1998] and resilience theory [Buzzanell, 2010], our inquiry provides insight into the sustainability of disaster-relief worker involvement and the discursive processes whereby workers overcome emotional and physical challenges to create resilience labor. Analyzing 23 semi-structured interviews with disaster-relief workers of a non-profit organization, we define resilience labor as the dual-layered process of reintegrating transformative identities and identifications to sustain and construct ongoing organizational involvement and resilience. The identification frames align with familial, ideological, and destruction–renewal network ties that empower individuals to construct their identities in transformative ways. The frames can guide non-profit managers and volunteers working in extreme contexts characterized by societal conflicts or disruption to sustain themselves as they construct resilience labor.

Keywords:

• Identification
• Resilience
• Resilience Labor
• Identity
• Disaster-Relief Workers
• Frames
• Disaster Relief
• Non-profit Organizations

Notes

1. Interviews ranged from short to moderate duration and were defined by an individual's ability to participate. One participant had an interview time of 10 minutes and 28 seconds in part because she was new to the USA. She explained she was working with the non-profit mainly to give back (as was the custom in her country) but did not elaborate much during the probing questions. One participant, a male volunteer in his 20s who had given up his regular job to engage in disaster-relief volunteering, had an interview time of 50 minutes and 2 seconds.