Situated cognition and the ethnographic study of translation processes: Translation scholars as outsiders, consultants and passionate participants

Abstract

Whereas traditional methods of translation process research aim predominantly at fulfilling the requirements for controlled scientific experiments, shifts towards embodiment and situatedness at a conceptual level require methodological innovations for the analysis of cognitive processes as embedded in their relevant environments. In this article, we concentrate on one of the main challenges in the ethnographic study of translation processes in the translation workplace: the relationship between the researchers and the participants. Drawing on data from a multiple case study, we investigate the perceived role of the researchers and the mutual expectations of both the observers and the observed. In doing so, we examine the attitudes of translators and translation project managers towards researchers in a series of different work settings. Our results indicate that the enquirer posture imposed on the researchers by some participants corresponds with the formers’ planned methodological and epistemological approaches, as do their expected trade-offs. Others, in turn, differ substantially from the researchers in their expectations. Based on our own experience and subsequent reflections, we argue that fostering connections between translation scholars and practitioners may contribute to overcoming some of the methodological challenges of ethnographic research in Translation Studies.

Why is translation relevant today: ideas for future translators

“…Since discussing this research eld fall far beyond the scope of this article, the author connes themselves with a mention of few most recent contributions e.g. Marín García (2019); Milo²evi¢, Risku (2021); Risku, Rogl (2022) or Tra&Co Group (2021). One such task is advanced text comprehension: far more detailed and meticulous since oriented towards enabling the 'transfer of nuances' that for a 'default' text reader can be a matter of interpretative option or redundancy.…”

Praxis and process meet halfway: The convergence of sociological and cognitive approaches in translation studies

“…To illustrate the potential for the cross-fertilization of social and cognitive approaches in translation process research, we would now like to discuss two examples from our own empirical research on cognitive processes in translation. For the purposes of this paper, we revisited our analysis of data gathered in a case study on translation project management (Risku et al, 2019;Milošević & Risku, 2020;Rogl & Risku, forthcoming). In this study, we investigated the cognitive preconditions of translation with the social embeddedness of translation processes in mind, in line with the social and sociocognitive expansion of the scope of cognitive translation process research (see e.g., Ehrensberger-Dow & Englund-Dimitrova, 2016).…”