SOLIDARITY & MUTUAL AID IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE STORM ALEX 2020 / SOLIDARITY & MUTUAL AID IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE STORM ALEX 2020: A step for a total synergy theory

This work was presented at the 2024 ESSLab+ Seminar at Hochschule Darmstadt (May 21-23). It discusses David Ortiz Haro's doctoral thesis on adaptive prosocial collective behaviors in disaster situations.Background: The thesis is part of the ANR-INPLIC project Analysis of behaviors during crisis situations.Methods: We mobilized four methodological approaches: case study, grounded theory, ethnography, and narrative research. Ninety-eight interviews were conducted with residents, affected populations, rescuers, first responders, and authorities. The findings were triangulated with local and national press and social media videos. Behaviors were coded, highlighting solidarity and mutual aid.Results: The analysis of fifty-five interviews indicated that solidarity and mutual aid are normative behaviors during the Maritime Alps catastrophe and perceived as extraordinary by populations. These behaviors are processual and progressive, manifesting on micro (individual), meso (social), and macro (collective) levels. Their activation depends on local convergence, damage assessment, and commitment to action. This framework identified the phases of the solidarity chain (Emergency, Adaptation, Community Building, Organization & Institutionalization, Renormalization & Reconstruction, Total Synergy, and Collective Resilience) and key indicators of each phase (Preparation and Foresight, Local Knowledge & Improvisation, Strong Community Sense or Feeling, Recognition & Validation, Collaboration & Planning, Coordination & Interoperability, Integrative Worldview or Cosmovision). These phases and indicators are linked to specific collective behaviors.We also identified twelve antitheses of solidarity (Selfishness, Abuse of Solidarity, Refusal of Help, Shame, Indifference, Misinformation, Doubt about taking responsibility, Waiting for Authorization, Figureti & Competition, Evil, Threat or Menace and Conflict), which can hinder solidarity.Conclusions: The response to Storm Alex in the Maritime Alps is largely characterized by solidarity and mutual aid, revealing an operationalizable survival ancestral social unit present globally. We termed this unit MINGA (Movement of Immediate Intervention of Generosity and Solidarity Actions) requiring training and legitimization and complementing official response actions. The adaptive collective behavior of populations fosters total synergy among all actors involved in disaster response. In this sense, we establish the roots for a Total Synergy theory in the area of disaster risk management which integrates populations as the central actors of the disasters response.