Information sharing during cross‐border collaboration from a dialect continua perspective

Abstract

Emergencies sometimes cross the borders of nations making information sharing over national borders essential in emergency management. This type of information sharing is often mediated by some kind of technology. However, appropriate and efficient cross-border communication is more than providing technology to mediate information exchange. This study note focuses on emergency services experience of terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA)-mediated cross-border communication across the Norwegian-Swedish border. We applied the theory of dialect continua to analyse how people from different dialect areas understood each other. The study was based upon data gathered from semi-structured interviews. The findings show that indeed the technological solutions had opened up new opportunities for crossborder communication but that during stressful conditions, the language differences between Norwegian and Swedish could lead to misunderstandings.