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. 

Giolo Fele is Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Trento, Italy. His research focuses on video analysis of social interaction with an ethnomethodological approach, and he studies emergency management and communication between callers and public-safety answering points, wine and coffee tasting, and TV football commentaries.