Marketing, management and performance: Multilingualism as commodity in a tourism call centre

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ways an institution of the new economy-a tourism call centre in Switzerland-markets, manages and performs multilingual services. In particular, it explores the ways multilingualism operates as a strategic and managerial tool within tourism call centres and how the institutional regulation of language practices intersects with issues of power, economic interests and the reproduction of essentialist views of language. Furthermore, this paper highlights some of the ideological tensions between the performance of authenticity through language and the struggles over the definition of legitimate speakers. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.