Sociology of Translation

Following the sociological turn in translation studies, researchers' attention has shifted from studying a translatum to the translator. In connection with unexplored socio-psychological aspects of translator-oriented research, their happiness at work has been paid scant attention. More recently, interest in the translation process as a 'situated activity', i.e. the translator's workplace, has come to the fore. Intermingling these new research avenues, the overarching aim of the paper is to find out to what extent ergonomics of translation has an influence on translators' happiness at work. More specifically, components of organizational ergonomics of translation will be explored, along with their impact on agency translators' happiness at work. The paper is built upon a quantitative analysis of 98 questionnaires completed by agency translators in Slovakia. The paper explores correlations between the agency translators' support for workflow, opportunity to discuss translation problems, autonomy at work, time pressure, clarity of deadlines, feedback, variety in deskbound routines on the one hand and happiness at work (HAW) on the other hand. The research has revealed significant relationships between the translators' HAW and their working environment, text type, time pressure and ability to maintain concentration.

I den här artikeln undersöks hur en grupp nyblivna översättarstudenter ser på översättning med utgångspunkt i ett översättningssociologiskt ramverk. Syftet är att visa hur ett socialt och temporalt kontextualiserat översättningsbegrepp (concept of translation) kan konstrueras utifrån ett fokusgruppsamtal. Fokusgruppsamtalet spelades in tre månader efter att studenterna hade påbörjat sina studier och analyserades induktivt genom tematisk analys enligt Braun & Clarkes (2006) modell. Analysen resulterade i fyra övergripande teman: 1) översättning är allmängiltigt – översättning är kontextspecifikt, 2) översättning är socialt – översättning är individuellt, 3) översättning är teoretiskt – översättning är praktiskt och 4) översättning är osynligt. Dessutom tillkommer tre teman om vad översättnig enligt studenterna inte är: översättning är inte tolkning, översättning är inte (bara) språkkunskaper och översättning är inte (bara) fackkunskaper. Resultatet visar att studenternas syn på översättnig kan kopplas till fem sociala kontexter som de på olika sätt relaterar till: det svenska samhället, allmänheten, språkutbildningen, översättarutbildningen och översättaryrket.

This thesis is concerned with Swedish translators and the society in which they work. It begins with an exploration of the concept of translatorship, leading up to a three-part distinction of 1) textual translatorship, 2) paratextual translatorship, and 3) extratextual translatorship. Adopting a mixed methods approach, the empirical body of the thesis consists of three studies in which different aspects of extratextual translatorship – defined as the translator’s social role – are investigated. In doing so, the thesis makes new and valuable contributions to the field of agent-oriented translation sociology.

The first study explores translators’ perceptions of translatorship using data collected through a widely distributed questionnaire. It employs a comparative approach derived from questionnaire-based studies originally designed by Helle V. Dam and Karen Korning Zethsen and previously conducted in Denmark and Finland. Although the group of respondents are fractionalised in many respects, perceptions concerning both the profession’s characteristics and its value on a societal level are highly unanimous. Statistical tests, however, reveal interesting nuances within the broader unanimity. Furthermore, in relation to previous research on translator status conducted in Denmark and Finland, the results display significant similarities but also some noteworthy differences. The second study investigates the ongoing socialisation of two groups of translation students in the process of becoming translators through a longitudinal focus group study. The data, collected over the course of two years, are analysed through deductive thematic analysis. A special emphasis is placed upon exploring the contextual structures in which the students’ socialisation processes are embedded and the structural factors influencing it. In the third study, in-depth interviews were conducted with five individual translators with different specialisations. Using deductive thematic analysis, the functions of their translatorships are investigated from an individual-centred perspective focusing on their respective roles as translators on an individual, professional and societal level, which correspond, respectively, to a concern for personal satisfaction, a sense of social community, and a higher purpose. Such a framework distinguishes and differentiates individual translators’ approaches to the profession while simultaneously providing an encompassing picture of the different functions of translatorship in translators’ lives.

Overall, the thesis adopts a mixed methods approach in order to generate greater understanding of the dynamics of translatorship in contemporary Sweden. Targeting different levels of translatorship, it unravels a number of significant social dimensions of translatorship, such as the social recognition needed in order to become a translator. Together, the studies also point towards a number of common features as especially relevant for translatorship in contemporary Sweden, namely individualism, entrepreneurialism, collectiveness, translator status, responsibility and exit, i.e. the prospect of leaving the profession. Taken as a whole, the thesis demonstrates the value of a mixed methods approach in the field of agent-oriented translation sociology by shedding considerable light on the links between the translator and society and indicating further avenues through which these links can continue to be explored.

Du fait des transformations liées à l’expansion des nouvelles technologies de communications Web 2.0, la pluralité des concepts oblige à réinterroger la place de la traduction, en incluant la notion relationnelle de l’autonomie. À partir des thèmes émergents de la culture de l’autonomie en réseau et de la sociologie de la traduction, cet article présente une analyse netnographique des pratiques traductives dans les communautés virtuelles en Turquie.
In a network society formed around the new media and communication technologies, the new autonomous culture built around the concept of mass self- communication questions the role of translation. The purpose of this study is to provide a netnographic analysis of the translation practices and translator identities within the online communities in Turkey.

The aim of this study is to conduct a netnographic analysis of retranslations of Darwin’s theory from English into Turkish, which is in circulation within open science communities. The study also includes an exploration of its fields of application that create a basis for evolutionary biology in Turkey through the activities of networked social movements. In addition to sociology of translation, which is the primary foundation of the present research, translation practices in the digital environment are also highlighted. In this framework, the retranslation of certain values that culminate around Darwin’s theory in Turkey are discussed with their ethical and deontological implications. The values in question include democracy, debate culture, freedom of expression, right to information, equal opportunities, and a model of the society that networked social movements are based on. The netnographic projection of these practices experienced by the translator identities are also discussed.

Bien qu’elle ne constitue en rien une pratique marginale, la révision, en tant que relecture et modification d’une traduction existante dans le but d’une nouvelle édition, a suscité jusqu’à maintenant très peu d’intérêt en traductologie. La retraduction, activité avec laquelle elle entretient de nombreux liens, a quant à elle souvent été abordée comme le résultat de simples schémas monocausaux, fondés sur la défaillance ou sur l’évolution des normes. Le présent mémoire, à partir de l’analyse comparative de la trilogie Mémoire du feu (publiée pour la première fois chez Plon en 1985 et 1988) — traduction française de Memoria del fuego, d’Eduardo Galeano (1982, 1984 et 1986) — et de sa révision (publiée chez Lux en 2013), démontre plutôt la multiplicité des facteurs sous-tendant le processus de révision et la nécessité d’étudier leurs interactions. Notre étude de cas, alliant une analyse textuelle, une étude contextuelle et un travail de terrain, révèle l’influence significative des pratiques, des positions idéologiques et des conceptions des agents tant sur l’entreprise d’une révision que sur son déroulement.

This paper applies actor–network theory (ANT) to study the non-human agents that participate in the translation and publication process of Monkey, an English translation of the Chinese classic Xi You Ji. The materials used consist mainly of the letters exchanged between the publisher George Allen & Unwin, the translator Arthur Waley, and the jacket and title page designer Duncan Grant. Moreover, the “Preface” of the translation written by the translator himself and the publisher’s autobiography are referenced as additional sources of information. The research reveals two groups of entities which act as what ANT scholars term as “non-human actors”. The first group consists of texts, more specifically, the “Preface” to Monkey and some letters exchanged between Waley as a translator and Unwin as a publisher, which reveals the reasons of re-translating Monkey and the translation strategy used. The second group includes the Second World War and the influenza epidemic in the 1940s that impeded the reprinting of Monkey. The paper concludes that, in addition to human actors, non-human actors that have also actively exerted influences on both the process and the outcome of a major translation project deserve to receive more attention when looking at translation as a social activity.

This book employs actor-network theory (ANT) to explore the making of the English translation of a work of Chinese canonical fiction, Journey to the West, demonstrating how ANT, as applied to Translation Studies, can contribute to a richer understanding of the translation process.

The volume builds on previous research to apply ANT theory to translation studies by looking in-depth at a single work, highlighting the unique factors underpinning the making of Monkey, Arthur Waley’s English translation of the Chinese classic Journey to the West, which make the work an ideal candidate for showing ANT theory in practice in translation. Luo uses an in-depth exploration of the work to examine the ways in which both human and nonhuman translation actors and agents interact in different ways in the publication of this translation, showcasing them as dynamic, changing, and active participants whose roles shifted over the course of the translation process, rather than as fixed entities as traditionally categorized in existing research. The book moves beyond a descriptive account of an ANT-based case study toward offering a systematic theoretical and methodological framework of ANT-based translation studies, using the conclusions drawn from its application to a single work to suggest a way forward for applying ANT in translation production on a wider scale.

This book will be of interest to scholars in translation studies, sociology, and comparative literature, particularly those interested in actor-network theory or network studies and their application to related disciplinary fields.

This chapter examines innovation in the context of the small scale fashion
industry. The chapter tells a story of the struggles of translating innovative
ideas into material forms, and shows that the work of innovation consists
of continuous attempts to create material order. Hardy negotiations are
involved when innovative ideas are given durable form. The process of
materialization is a complex process, where abstract ideas may meet material
obstacles and textural boundaries. Innovation, thus, is a continuous
process of negotiating material realities.
The main points of the chapter are that innovation is a continuous
process of working for order. Very often, material objects are central in
fixing and materializing an innovative idea. This chapter argues that it does
not make sense to talk about innovation without focusing on the materialities
which the innovative efforts are centered around. Innovation is viewed
as a process which works against a background of fluidity, of continuous
decay and disintegration. Central to innovative efforts are two things: materializations
- working at and with physical objects - and conversational
processes which aim at sharing perspectives on the innovation activities.
Processes of innovation are processes of social and material conversation
and negotiation.
The concept of innovation with care points to relations between the
diverse sets of actors which may participate in innovation, and the advice
that these relations must be handled with care that they must be worked
at and bridged together. This chapter suggests that this bridging is undertaken
with explicit attention to the role of material entities. Material objects
are viewed as potential stabilizers, they are viewed as the boundary objects
which may give concrete form to innovative ideas, but they are also viewed
as entities which are fragile. Their cohesion may be obstructed, and their
materialization may fail to emerge, and even once they are constructed,
they may easily fall apart again. This shows that innovation is a continuous
process, and that maintaining an innovation is just as crucial as the initial
birth of an idea. Innovation is portrayed as taking place in tightly knit,
inseparable, and co-creative socio-material relations in continuous making
and decay.

The paper provides an overview of the vocabulary for materiality which is used by practice-based approaches to organizational knowing.

Design methodology approach - The overview is theoretically generated and is based on the anthology Knowing in Organizations: A Practice-based Approach edited by Nicolini, Gherardi and Yanow. The overview is built by cross-reading the analyses in this book. The intellectual traditions which are scrutinized all agree that action is materially embedded - objects and artifacts are central to both knowing and learning. But what is their understanding of materiality? The paper explores which concepts are used, how the interaction between social and material realities is presented, and the role materiality is perceived to have in relation to action.

Findings - Findings are that, within the practice-based approach, common terms for materiality are "artifact" and "object". The interaction between social and material realities is grasped as several processes: object-oriented activity, symbolization, embodiment, performance, alignment and mediation. Material artifacts both stabilize and destabilize organizational action. They may ensure coordination, communication, and control, but they may also create disturbance and conflict.

Originality value - The paper lists a range of options for conceptualizing how organizational action may be materially mediated. It points out that material entities may both stabilize and destabilize organizational action. It contributes to the further understanding of the tangible, artifactual and object-related side of organizational knowing.