Collaborative Collective Action in Disaster Related Situations

In response to the devastating earthquake of September 19^th 2017, the residents of Mexico City undertook a variety of collaborative collective actions, just like it had occurred thirty two years before, with the earthquake of September 19^th 1985. Although some similitudes can be identified between the two earthquakes, circumstances were sharply different. For one thing, whereas in 2017 collaborative collective action was greatly built upon Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, in 1985 these information and communication technologies did not exist. Secondly, whereas in 1985 urban popular organizations in Mexico City had were highly articulated, in 2017 the urban popular movement was almost non-existent. The purpose of this paper is to compare the impact of new information and communication technologies and the impact of the social fabric on disaster related collaborative collective action. Data will come from previous qualitative studies on the 1985 earthquake and from a qualitative study conducted between September 2017 and March 2018 in Mexico City through in-depth interviews, non-participant observation and the analysis of secondary sources.