This book explores communication in emergency call and response centers, taking an approach drawn from Conversation Analysis to examine how call-takers answer calls and the ways in which dispatch is issued in different contexts. It offers an original contribution to the study of the organization of emergency calls, the ways such calls are treated, and some of the practical problems that emerge when dealing with them. The author offers a systematic review of studies in the international field of the organization of emergency calls, while at the same time providing fresh case studies, illustrated with empirical materials, taken from audio- and video- recordings of the everyday activities of call and response centers. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of social interaction and may be appreciated by all scholars and practitioners working on the social management of emergency situations, including in fields such as Sociolinguistics and Pragmatics.
Author(s): Giolo Fele
Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 222
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
List of Excerpts
Chapter 1: Introduction
References
Chapter 2: The Organization of Emergency Calls
1 Structural Organization
2 The Components of the Opening of Emergency Calls and the Request for Assistance
2.1 The Opening
2.2 The Request for Assistance12
3 The Interrogative Series
4 Granting the Request and Thanking
5 Problems of Communication
6 Conclusions
References
Chapter 3: The Search for a Place
1 How to Locate the Scene of an Emergency
2 Place Formulation
3 Descriptions of Places and ‘Locating Work’
4 Common Sense Geography
5 When the Geography Is Not Shared
6 When the Geography Is Shared Through Other Devices
7 “Be Specific!”
8 How to Be “Specific” About Places Without Giving a Place Name
9 “But Approximately, Where Is ...”
10 Conclusions
References
Chapter 4: When a Call Is Not an Emergency
1 Asking for Information
2 Formulations and Their Sequential Context
3 Entitlement and Contingency
4 Conclusions
References
Chapter 5: How to Ask for Help When There Is Little or No Information
1 Knowledge and Responsibility in Emergency Calls
2 How the Display of a Lack of Knowledge Can Have the Consequence of the Request for Help Being Rejected
3 How an Insufficient Knowledge Claim May Be Associated with a Strong Entitlement
4 How the Display of Lack of Knowledge Can Have Only Local Consequences in the Interaction
5 How to Avoid Making Claims of Insufficient Knowledge and Have the Request for Help Considered
6 Discussion
7 Conclusions
References
Chapter 6: When There Is a Language Issue
1 Emergency Calls and Language Barriers
2 What Is a Language Barrier and How Is It Dealt with by the Participants?
3 Turning to a Professional Translation Service
4 The Interpreter’s Work
4.1 The Caller’s Narrative
4.2 The Interpreter’s Rendition
4.3 Interpreter’s Initiatives
5 Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: Responses and Dispatch on the Radio
1 The Collaborative Production of Responses and Dispatching on the Radio
2 The Context
3 Radio Dispatch
4 Forms of Collaboration
4.1 “It’s a Wasp”
4.2 “Are You Operational 533?”
5 Conclusions
References
Appendix
Symbols Used for the Transcription
References
Index
