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Based on the analysis of the types of youth organizations, this paper discusses the differences in response speed, disaster relief methods and sustainability of youth organizations in earthquake disasters, as well as the similarities and differences in emergency response. It is believed that among the youth organizations in China, formal youth organizations still occupy a dominant position and play a major role. Informal youth organizations have played a certain role, but the social self-organization function is still restricted and needs to be explored. As far as Chinese youth organizations are concerned, disasters should be regarded as an opportunity to improve their emergency response ability and develop their organizations, especially to promote the development of informal youth organizations.
Earthquake disaster; Youth organizations; emergency response
All social organizations have certain functions. Function is the foundation and value of social organization. Youth organizations have become very active social organizations in the world today and are playing an increasingly important role because of the distinctive characteristics of their members. As a social organization, youth organizations have very important functions, mainly including: meeting the needs of young people, safeguarding their rights and interests, participating in society, promoting social progress, assisting political parties and governments in governing, and acting as an important carrier of ideology. The functions of these six aspects are interrelated, showing the historical context of the continuous improvement of the functions of youth organizations (Shi Guoliang, Gao Min. On the Function and Expansion of Youth Organizations [J]. Journal of Guangdong Youth Cadre College, 2007
After the Wenchuan earthquake, all walks of life responded quickly, emergency rescue was carried out in an orderly and tense manner, and the people widely participated in the earthquake relief campaign, and various rescues showed great strength. The era gives young people brand-new social responsibility, historical responsibility and talent responsibility, and the new youth responsibility is the positive response of youth organizations to a harmonious society (Shi Yihua. Building a harmonious society and the three responsibilities of contemporary youth [J]. Journal of Shanxi Youth Management Cadre College, 2007
This paper analyzes the behavior and performance of youth organizations in this earthquake disaster from the perspective of sociology, and summarizes and reflects on the characteristics and shortcomings of youth organizations in emergency response.
I. Types of youth organizations: formal and informal
The development of youth organizations is closely related to social structure and the development of youth. The profound changes in China's economic system, social structure and interest pattern have brought great vitality to the development of China, and also profoundly changed the ideological concepts and behavior patterns of contemporary youth. While supporting the party's principles and policies and maintaining a high political quality and ideological level, the vast number of young people are more independent, rational, pragmatic and diversified in their thoughts and behaviors, and their demands for various social interests are also more diversified. With the diversification of young people's hobbies and interests and the enrichment of ways and means of organizing young people, the organizational form of young people has also undergone profound changes. A single youth organization with the Communist Youth League as the core can no longer adapt to the changed objective situation and the ideological characteristics of young people, and it is also difficult to meet the psychological and social needs of young people.
There are various types of youth organizations, and formal youth organizations and informal youth organizations are one of the ways to divide them. Regular youth organizations have complete articles of association and system, stable members, clear organizational principles, tight organizational structure and clear rights and obligations of members, so they have the characteristics of purpose, regularity and stability. Some official youth organizations, which embody official colors and serve politics, have made greater progress in organizational system and further consolidated and upgraded their status as youth organizations because of their sufficient funds, stable personnel and strong support from the government, constantly expanding their scale, constantly improving and expanding their organizational functions and increasing the number of participants. They occupy a dominant position in youth organizations and play a vanguard, exemplary and main force role. In China, there are mainly * * * Youth League organizations and Communist Youth League organizations. In addition, there are some youth organizations organized by communities or enterprises and institutions, such as community youth voluntary organizations or enterprise youth commandos.
Compared with formal youth organizations, informal youth organizations refer to those organizations formed spontaneously by young people, with loose structure and no "official" color. Informal youth organizations have the characteristics of strong spontaneity, cohesion and instability because they have no complete constitution and system, unstable members, unclear organizational principles, loose organizational structure and uncertain rights and obligations of members. This kind of youth organization is mainly organized spontaneously for some young people, based on the same preferences of young people. They mainly rely on online gatherings to make friends, practice public welfare and participate in social affairs. Their activities are full of creativity, and their organization is growing day by day. The self-organization of these young people fully reflects the sociality and development of young people, and the development process of young people's participation in social life from disorder to order. Because youth self-organization is mainly concentrated in the fields of new dating parties, fashion sports, social welfare actions and so on. These fields have also become an important symbol of observing youth pop culture. Informal youth organizations are complementary forms of formal youth organizations. They cooperate with regular youth organizations, give full play to the wisdom of young members, play a certain role in promoting social progress, and show strong organizational cohesion and social influence.
Second, the difference analysis of youth organizations to deal with emergencies
In the face of Wenchuan earthquake, various youth organizations have fulfilled their social responsibilities with their own actions. When the country needed it most, youth organizations quickly entered a state of disaster resistance, showing a strong spirit of courage to take responsibility. The response speed and emergency response ability of China youth organizations in Wenchuan earthquake are impressive, and they have played a certain role in emergency response, fully demonstrating their strong organizational strength and cohesion. However, due to the differences in organizational structure, members and forms between formal youth organizations and informal youth organizations, they showed different characteristics in this earthquake relief.
1. In terms of reaction speed, youth self-organized reaction is rapid.
Because informal youth organizations have the characteristics of strong spontaneity, young people have the same feelings outside formal youth organizations, or get together automatically for communication, and naturally form various informal youth organizations. Unlike a formal youth organization, it has leadership, purpose and planning, but it has great spontaneity. Therefore, after the earthquake, public opinion was relatively open and the political environment was relatively relaxed. Informal youth organizations have gained more room for action. They position themselves as assistants to assist the government in disaster relief, and they take the route of cooperation with the government to gain government support, thus reducing resistance and giving informal youth organizations a platform to display.
In this earthquake disaster, informal youth organizations responded quite quickly, not slower than formal youth organizations, but also faster than formal youth organizations and the government in some aspects. On the second day after the 512 earthquake, ordinary young people contacted young people in Nanjing, Shanghai and Hangzhou by telephone and internet. Like-minded people took the lead in organizing the Temporary Office for Young Volunteers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai to help Sichuan earthquake disasters, and organized young volunteers and people with lofty ideals in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai to raise funds for disaster relief and enter the disaster area as quickly as possible.
2. In the way of disaster relief, formal youth organizations are unified and orderly, while youth self-organization is flexible and changeable.
Formal youth organizations work under the leadership of party committees and governments at all levels. They generally organize and plan a series of earthquake relief activities according to the requirements of party committees and governments at all levels, and the services they can provide are usually unified. For example, according to the arrangement of the Party committee and government, organize youth members to raise funds and pay special tour fees. Under the organization of league organizations at all levels, express deep sorrow to the people in the disaster areas and mobilize the masses to donate money and materials for the disaster areas. All a series of activities are going on in an orderly way. After the 5 12 earthquake, informal organizations adopted flexible and diverse methods in the whole rescue work. In addition to formal youth organizations, individual backbone youth spontaneously organized youth volunteers, quickly set up youth commando teams and other organizations, and entered the disaster area as quickly as possible to carry out emergency activities. They are composed of ten or dozens of people, and some rescue teams go to the disaster area to carry out on-site rescue and undertake the work of material handling and the transfer of the wounded. There are also some young volunteers who organize or contact some young people to donate blood to the people in the disaster area through emotional volunteering, and some groups have been formed to actively spread the information in the disaster area.
As can be seen from the above, under the leadership and guidance of the Party and the government, the official youth organizations have led and planned to carry out rescue work and provided unified services, and the whole rescue work has been carried out in an orderly manner. Informal youth organizations are temporary organizations spontaneously formed by a few like-minded young people, so they can carry out disaster relief activities anytime and anywhere through various means. It can be said that informal youth organizations played a role in the 5. 12 earthquake, and their action strength was also tempered and improved. However, constrained by the external environment and its own development level, informal youth organizations are fighting on their own, without forming a joint force, and the effect of their actions is quite limited. When some foreign volunteer organizations entered the disaster area, some lawless elements also infiltrated into some informal youth organizations to carry out theft and robbery activities in the disaster area, which made it more difficult for the local government to maintain social order. Therefore, in the subsequent disaster relief, foreign voluntary organizations must get in touch with the local government before they can enter the disaster area.
3. In terms of disaster relief, formal youth organizations are stable and secure, while youth self-organization is temporarily unstable.
With stable personnel, sufficient funds, material support and strong support from the government, regular youth organizations can say that they need people and things in the whole rescue work, and they can do their best to support them as long as they need them before the disaster. In the whole process of rescue activities and post-earthquake reconstruction, the official youth organizations with the Communist Youth League as the core have always carried out various rescue work under the leadership of the party and the government. After learning that the people in the disaster area were searching for emergency lights, organizations in Fujian and other places dispatched 500 hand-cranked emergency lights to the disaster area overnight. Knowing that there was a shortage of rain gear in the disaster area, Zhejiang urgently dispatched 50 thousand umbrellas to Sichuan, worth 500 thousand yuan; * * * The Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League launched the "Love Route" activity, and donated urgently needed materials to Sichuan by a Boeing 737-800 plane every day; Including post-disaster reconstruction and psychological counseling for children and adolescents in disaster areas, are carried out by youth organizations under the guidance of party committees and governments at all levels.
However, informal youth organizations are formed on the basis of young people's similar interests and emotions. Their membership, organizational structure, activities and codes of conduct have no strict rules and restrictions, are easily influenced by accidental factors, have great variability, or have different opinions or interests or disharmony in interpersonal relationships, which may lead to the reunion or reorganization of informal youth organizations. Therefore, it is impossible to maintain stability and continuity in carrying out various tasks in order to achieve the greatest due effect.
Three. The commonness and characteristics of young people's organizational crisis response in disaster relief
1. Show a sense of responsibility centered on social participation and responsibility.
This humanitarian appeal for help shows the generation of China people's sense of autonomy, and the sense of social responsibility has become an inherent cultural consciousness. Youth organizations have played a great role and energy. Youth organizations directly face earthquake disasters, directly participate in disaster relief, and directly undertake the historical mission of fighting disasters and saving people. In the aftershock, landslide and life-threatening moment, the younger generation is in the front line. As a non-governmental force, youth voluntary organizations are full of enthusiasm for active participation and have made unswerving disaster relief actions. Regardless of class, occupation, region and wealth, after the earthquake, they all closely United, or contributed their wisdom and money, or maintained order, or personally participated in the rescue, showing a sense of responsibility that they dared to bear and be willing to contribute in the catastrophe.
2. Play an important role in social mobilization.
The degree of social organization and mobilization ability of a country is one of the most important symbols of modernization. In China's efforts to change the weak position, the degree of such organizational mobilization has long been directly equivalent to the ability of government organizations to mobilize society. In an organic modern society, NGOs are as important as national organizations. Youth organizations are the most dynamic groups in a country, and the social mobilization ability of youth groups is particularly prominent among civil forces and plays an important role in social cohesion. In addition to the social mobilization organized by the Wenchuan earthquake, many informal youth organizations also actively participated in it, and made extensive publicity to the public, calling for public donations. This youth action, to a great extent, presents a large-scale social mobilization action, which makes the situation in the disaster area spread to the hearts of every compassionate and caring China people in time. This action not only aroused the enthusiasm and determination of the people of China to support the reconstruction of the disaster-stricken areas, but also enabled citizens to find a social bond in this country, that is, to feel close and stable ties with the country, society and others.
3. Strengthen ties with regional and international youth organizations and join hands in earthquake relief.
Barnard, an advocate of organizational collaboration theory, believes that individuals must collaborate. Because as an individual, he is not only limited by his activity environment, but also by the biological nature of human beings. The effective way to overcome these limitations of individuals is to adopt cooperative social activities. After the Wenchuan earthquake, youth voluntary organizations from all over the country joined forces to quickly form a rescue team, regardless of class, identity and region, for the same purpose-earthquake relief. Compatriots in different places and overseas Chinese also truly express the power of ethnic groups in various forms. Youth organizations at all levels have taken joint actions in resource mobilization, material allocation, information transmission, life search and rescue, on-site rescue, psychological counseling, and caring for children and the elderly, effectively mobilizing social resources. This proves once again that people exist as a group, and the carrier of human development is society; A nation and a region cannot exist and develop independently, and all need mutual support and cooperation.
4. Pay attention to the fit with the public.
This is manifested in two aspects. First of all, after the earthquake, the activities of youth organizations pay more attention to public needs, not just the tasks assigned by the government. For example, the initial fund-raising activities of formal or informal youth organizations, as well as various voluntary service activities, are all planned to cope with social emergencies. Secondly, youth organizations pay more attention to relying on the strength from the public when carrying out activities, which is mainly reflected in the human resources that various volunteer service activities rely on, mainly volunteers who sign up from the bottom up. This shows that the youth organizations in China are consciously making efforts in the direction of folk and socialization in their own positioning. This coincides with the development direction of grassroots youth organizations that appear at the grassroots level because of their similar majors and interests. Therefore, in this disaster relief, many professional youth organizations responded quickly and carried out rescue activities in some villages that the government could not reach in time. Many youth organizations have strong autonomy, independent activities and flexible actions. If the Youth Foundation keenly captures the public's desire for donation, it will immediately launch a fund-raising activity.
Four. Conclusion: Promote the development of informal youth organizations.
Wenchuan earthquake, for China youth organizations, is not only a concentrated display of their sense of social responsibility, but also an opportunity to test their development. Youth organizations with a high sense of social service and dedication are important symbols of modern social civilization. Disaster relief has promoted the concentration and integration of youth organizations in China, and they have coordinated the division of labor, which has provided an important guarantee for more efficient disaster relief.
1. At present, formal youth organizations are still in a dominant position and play a major role in youth organizations in China, and informal youth organizations, as a supplementary way of formal youth organizations, are still growing.
By analyzing the behaviors of formal youth organizations and informal youth organizations in Wenchuan 5. 12 earthquake, we can find that formal youth organizations are still in a dominant position and play a major role in China's youth organizations. In this earthquake disaster, informal youth organizations have played some functions, but their social self-organization function is still restricted and needs to be explored, and informal youth organizations are still growing. In order to meet the requirements of the ideological development of contemporary youth, in addition to the formal youth organizations with the Youth League as the core, some novel, practical and popular informal youth organizations are constantly emerging, and they gradually assume their social functions. With the increasing opening-up and ideological and cultural prosperity of all countries in the world, more and more informal youth organizations based on youth's common interests, religious beliefs, academic cooperation, value orientation and pragmatic exchanges will accelerate their development and gradually become the new force of youth organizations. In participating in various youth affairs, they are more responsive and act more quickly. However, the composition of these informal youth organizations largely depends on the organizational ability and reputation of their backbone figures. This excessive dependence depends on the role of some individuals, rather than the collective role of organizations based on rules and regulations, which is the internal factor of the fragility and variability of informal youth organizations. Therefore, when undertaking some youth tasks, it cannot be twisted into a force, but can only be a supplementary way for regular youth organizations.
2. At present, the number of youth organizations in China is still small, and more youth organizations are still needed to participate in the crisis.
According to the organization theory, the factors that affect the full play of the organization's role are: whether the external legitimacy is obtained, and the level of the organization's own ability and quality. External legitimacy refers to the recognition of the external environment of the organization and the recognition and support of the public; The ability and quality of an organization refers to the vitality of the organization itself, including its integration ability, cohesion, mechanism innovation ability and adaptability to management and technical means. Organizational sociology [M]. Beijing: Renmin University of China Press, 200 1.6438+056). Undeniably, some youth organizations in China played a great role in the crisis, such as the Communist Youth League in China. However, judging from the number of youth organizations, the number of youth organizations in China is very small, and more youth organizations are still needed to participate in the crisis.
3. Today, with the diversification of young people's psychological and social interests, a single youth organization cannot manage all youth affairs, and informal youth organizations should be a positive supplement to formal youth organizations.
On the one hand, the earthquake disaster shows the rise of informal youth organizations in China, but on the other hand, it also highlights the problems of imperfect development and insufficient capacity of informal youth organizations in China. For example, in areas that are difficult for external rescuers to reach, the ability of self-help in this area is seriously insufficient, some local administrative centers are paralyzed, and local order is chaotic. It can be said that the management thought of "omnipotent government" has created a social space that is not conducive to the growth of informal youth organizations. Excessive dependence on the government's ideas often severely limits the role of informal organizations in social emergencies such as earthquakes, and the harsh and cumbersome registration procedures limit the ability of informal youth organizations to spontaneously solve social emergencies. Today, when the psychological and social interests of contemporary youth are diversified, a single youth organization cannot manage all youth affairs, but guiding the establishment of informal youth organizations is conducive to meeting the diversified needs of youth interests. The government can actively provide rational and institutionalized channels for the activities of informal youth organizations, standardize the development and growth of informal youth organizations, and improve youth's sense of participation and autonomy, thus becoming a positive supplementary way for formal youth organizations. Therefore, in order to give full play to the role of youth organizations, it is necessary to combine formal and informal youth organizations so that they can coexist in youth organizations.
4. Youth organizations should take major public events such as earthquake disasters as an opportunity to improve their emergency response capabilities and develop their organizations.
For youth organizations in China, major public events such as the earthquake disaster should be taken as an opportunity to improve their emergency response capability and develop their organizations. By actively cooperating with the government, responding to public demand, and carrying out effective rescue activities, we will show our value to the public and the government. At the same time, the activities of youth organizations should mainly focus on some areas where the public needs are urgent and there is "government failure". For example, in the work of promoting post-disaster social and home reconstruction, psychological intervention and life education are carried out in depth to reorganize people's spiritual order. More importantly, we should refine and carry forward the spirit of disaster relief, constantly improve the energy and role of youth organizations in rejuvenating the nation, and truly undertake the mission of building the country and creating a civilized society.