2015 — 2016 |
Wang, Chi (co-PI) [⬀] Bonikowski, Bart |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Doctoral Dissertation Research: the Process and Consequences of the Work of 911 Dispatchers
This doctoral dissertation research seeks to understand the process and consequences of 911 dispatchers' daily work. The study focuses on how dispatchers understand and respond to citizens' emergency situations communicated through 911 lines, how dispatchers code citizens' calls in the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, the source of dispatcher stress, and how dispatchers cope with stress, are trained, treated and perceived by their colleagues and related organizations. Extensive fieldwork will be conducted in an urban police department's emergency communication center where 911 calls are answered and units dispatched. An analysis will be completed of data from day-to-day actions in the center, interviews with dispatchers, directors, supervisors and trainees, records of past calls, incoming calls, information from CAD system, casual interactions in the operation room and dining area, training manuals and books, as well as other relevant documents and files from the media, the city, state court, and the state police. This study contributes to three bodies of literature in the field of sociology: state classification practices, street-level bureaucracy and the sociology of the professions. The empirical analysis seeks to answer the classical and present-day theoretical question of how the state is represented to and experienced by citizens.
The research examines the process through which the state classification system is applied and the costs and consequences of this process. The field site provides access to all incoming phone-calls, phone records, training materials, on-site observation interviews as well as CAD log-ins from an urban, big-city police department. The study will potentially demonstrate how street-level state employees (911 dispatchers) engage in state classification that bridges complex social life and clear-cut bureaucratic categories. It contributes to an increased understanding of how state categories are applied and reproduced, and how the correspondence between the outside world and state forms of representation is accomplished through the constant efforts of human agents. The research will also provide practical and policy-relevant guidance regarding the stress and trails experienced by 911 dispatchers and provide for citizens a greater understanding of how the 911 dispatch system works.
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