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Article published In:
Toward Comparative Translation and Interpreting Studies
Edited by Sergey Tyulenev and Binghan Zheng
[Translation and Interpreting Studies 12:2] 2017
► pp. 253–277

Globalization, translation, and cultural diversity

| University of Ottawa

The share of the economy related to translation activities is growing steadily under the influence of the globalization of exchanges. Today it numbers dozens of billions of which an increasing share belongs to machine translation. Various factors, such as migratory flows or the propagation of mobile telephony, prompt new translation practices in a variety of languages with simultaneous coverage enabled by networks. Nevertheless, is it true as we intuitively believe that translation promotes linguistic and cultural diversity? This article originates from a study conducted for UNESCO’s world report on cultural diversity (2009). This study notably reveals that 75% of all books are translated from three languages with 55% being from English. On a planetary scale, translation is dominated by some twenty languages, primarily European. In the new world economic order, the urgent and paradoxical task is to “rebabelize” the world.

Keywords: translation in global economy, new translation practices, world translation flows
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Translation within the global economy
  • Does machine translation promote language diversity?
  • New realities, new translation practices
    • Translation supporting public security
    • Migratory flows and the boom in telephone interpreting
    • Localization: Collective intelligence supporting diversity
  • The privilege of European languages
  • Rebabelizing the world: Policies promoting translation
    • Translation, a hegemony factor
    • Toward an ethics of reciprocity: Projects and initiatives
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.12.2.04bri
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