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Adaptation through Crowdsourcing in Disaster Management: A Complexity Theory Perspective

Darivandi Shoushtari, Kosar | 2025

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  1. Type of Document: Ph.D. Dissertation
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 58443 (44)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Management and Economics
  6. Advisor(s): Masoud Talebian; Shadnam, Masoud
  7. Abstract:
  8. The increasing frequency and intensity of disasters worldwide are giving rise to increasingly complex situations. Affected communities often struggle to respond effectively and rapidly using only their existing resources and infrastructure, including formal emergency response systems. In this context, voluntary efforts by citizen volunteers play an important role in enhancing communities’ adaptive capacity and resilience. Nevertheless, the considerable potential of volunteer-led disaster response is undermined by challenges related to coordination and organizing. Realizing this potential requires appropriate organizing solutions. This dissertation explores various approaches to organizing volunteers, their boundary conditions, and their effectiveness. The first study examines crowdsourcing platforms as a top-down organizing solution. Drawing on Ashby’s law of requisite variety, it uses an agent-based simulation method to address the problem. The second and third studies investigate self-organization among volunteers as a spontaneous bottom-up organizing solution. The second study adopts a qualitative, systematic review approach to analyze and synthesize existing empirical evidence on volunteers’ self-organization. The third study employs an agent-based simulation model to theoretically investigate and elaborate on the volunteers’ self-organization process
  9. Keywords:
  10. Disaster Management ; Crowdsourcing ; Simulation ; Self Assembly ; Complexity ; Organizational Fit ; Volunteers ; Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety

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