The view of translation as a socially regulated activity has opened up a broad field of research in the last few years. This volume deals with central questions of the new domain and aims to contribute to the conceptualisation of a general sociology of translation. Interdisciplinary in approach, it discusses the role of major representatives of sociology like Pierre Bourdieu, Bruno Latour, Bernard Lahire, Anthony Giddens or Niklas Luhmann in establishing a theoretical framework for a sociology of translation. Drawing on methodologies from sociology and integrating them into translation studies, the book questions some of the established categories in this discipline and calls for a redefinition of long-assumed principles. The contributions show the social involvement of translation in various fields and focus especially on the translator s position in an emerging sociology of translation, Bourdieu s influence in conceptualising this new sub-discipline, methodological questions and a sociologically oriented meta-discussion of translation studies.

This companion offers a wide-ranging introduction to the rapidly expanding field of translation studies, bringing together some of the best recent scholarship to present its most important current themes Features new work from well-known scholars Includes a broad range of geo-linguistic and theoretical perspectives Offers an up-to-date overview of an expanding field A thorough introduction to translation studies for both undergraduates and graduates Multi-disciplinary relevance for students with diverse career goals

Increasing attention has been paid to the agency of translators and interpreters, as well as to the social factors that permeate acts of translation and interpreting. In addition, agency and social factors are discussed in more interdisciplinary terms. Currently the focus is not only on translators or interpreters – i.e., the exploration of their inter/intra-social agency and identity construction (or on their activities and the consequences thereof), but also on other phenomena, such as the displacement of texts and people and issues of access and linguicism. The displacement of texts (whether written or oral) across time and space, as well as the geographic displacement of people, has encouraged researchers in Translation and Interpreting Studies to consider issues related to translation and interpreting through the lens of the Sociology of Language, Sociolinguistics, and Historiography. Researchers have employed a myriad of theoretical and methodological lenses borrowed from other disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Therefore, the interdisciplinarity of Translation and Interpreting Studies is more evident now than ever before. This volume, originally published as a special issue of Translation and Interpreting Studies (issue 7:2, 2012), is a perfect example of such interdisciplinarity, reflecting the shift that has occurred in Translation and Interpreting Studies around the world over the last 30 years.

Bourdieu's key concepts of habitus, field and capital have been adopted or adapted to elaborate the social and cultural nature of translation or interpreting activity, to locate this activity within social structures and social institutions, and to analyse the cultural, historical and political specificity of translation and interpreting practices. This special issue of The Translator explores the emergence and subsequent development of Bourdieu?s work within translation and interpreting studies. Contributors to this volume offer their critical assessment of the force of Bourdieu?s arguments in clarifying, strengthening or challenging existing analyses of the role of the social in translation and interpreting studies. The topics include a consideration of the role of habitus and symbolic/linguistic capital in translation and interpreting within the legal field; a critical evaluation of how educational sign language interpreters serve to reinforce the continuation of exclusionary practices toward deaf pupils within mainstream schooling; a critique of the dominant historiography of the early translations of Shakespeare?s drama in Egypt; an exploration of Bourdieu?s concepts of habitus, capital and illusio in relation to the formation of the literary field in France and America in the 19th and 20th century; a re-evaluation of the potential for a theoretical alliance between Latour? s actor-network theory and Bourdieu?s reflexive sociology; and a discussion of the ethnographic epistemological foundations of Bourdieu?s work with reference to political asylum procedures in Belgium. From varying perspectives, the papers in this volume demonstrate the contribution of Bourdieu?s work toward the continued elaboration of sociological perspectives within translation and interpreting studies.

This book deals with one of the most prominent and promising developments in modern Translation Studies--the sociology of translation. Tyulenev develops an original way of applying Luhmann's Social Systems Theory to translation, viewing translation as a social-systemic boundary phenomenon. The book consists of two major parts: in the first, translation is described as a system in its own right with its systemic properties; in the second part, translation is viewed as a social subsystem and as a boundary phenomenon in the overall social system.

Starting from the critical notion that we should be asking questions of contemporary importance - and that 'importance' itself must be defined - Anthony Pym sets about undoing many of the currently dominant models of translation history, positing, among much else, that the object of this history should be translators as people, that researchers are subjectively involved in their object, that cultural systems are based on social will, that translators work in intercultural spaces, and that a model of cooperation through negotiation may be applied to the way translators (and researchers!) work between cultures. At the same time, the proposed methodology is eminently constructive, showing how many empirical techniques can be developed and applied: clear illustrations are given of corpus selection, working definitions, deceptive statistics, and the construction of networks and regimes, incorporating elaborate examples drawn from medieval and modernist fields, as well as finding space for notes on practical problems like funding research. Finding its focus in historical debates, this book cannot help but create contemporary debate: its arguments seek not only to revitalize the historical study of translation but also to develop the wider concerns of intercultural studies.

Translation Studies has been defined in terms of spatial metaphors stressing the need for disciplinary border crossings, with the purpose of borrowing different approaches, orientations and tools from diverse academic fields. Such territorial incursions have resulted in a more thorough exploration of the home province, as this volume is designed to show. The interdisciplinary nature of the venture arises out of the multiplicity of terrains involved and the theoretically motivated definition of the object itself. Translation has been perceived as communication in context, hence the study of translated texts as facts of target cultures means that they need to be investigated within particular situational and sociocultural environments, an enterprise which necessarily requires the collaboration of various disciplines.This volume has grown out of a conference held at the University of Lisbon in November 2002 and collects a selection of papers that focus: on the crossdisciplinarity of Translation Studies, offering new perspectives on the current space of translation; on the importation and redefinition of theories, methodologies and concepts for the study of translation; and on the complex interplay of text and context in translation, creating dynamic interfaces with Sociology, Literary Theory, Cultural Studies, Discourse Analysis, Cultural History, among other disciplines.