Cover not available
Article published In:
Translation and Interpreting Studies
Vol. 9:2 (2014) ► pp.179–196

Translation as a social fact

This article proposes a reading of classical works of Emile Durkheim, one of the founding fathers of sociology, in light of their applicability to translation research. It is argued that, since translation is a social phenomenon, Durkheimian sociological thought may be of considerable help to Translation Studies (TS). The sociology of translation should be methodologically distinguished from the psychology of translation. In the sociology of translation, even studies of individual translations and translators should be conducted within a social context. In accordance with Durkheimian theory, it is argued that methodology for a sociologically-informed study of translation should avoid relying on common sense, which more often than not turns out to hamper, rather than help, the perception of translation as a social phenomenon. In other words, translation is presented as a social fact and the need to study it as such is strongly emphasized. Examples are borrowed from present-day translation research.
Keywords: Emile Durkheim, psychology of translation, sociology of translation, social fact, translation
Published online: 28 November 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.9.2.01tyu
References (59)
Bandia, Paul F., and Georges L. Bastin (eds). 2010. “Rencontres Est-Ouest/East-West Encounters.” TTR 13 (1).Google Scholar
Baker, Mona (ed). 2010. Critical Readings in Translation Studies. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bassnett, Susan, and Harish Trivedi (eds). 1999. Post-colonial Translation. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bauman, Zygmunt. 1990. Thinking Sociologically. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi. 1994. The Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brisset, Annie. 1996, 1990. A Sociocritique of Translation. Trans. Rosalind Gill, and Roger Gannon. Toronto: Toronto University Press.Google Scholar
Buzelin, Hélène. 2005. “Unexpected Allies: How Latour’s Network Theory Could Complement Bourdieusian Analysis.” The Translator 11 (9): 135–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cronin, Michael. 2003. Translation and Globalization. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Callon, Michel. 1986. “Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay.” In Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge?, ed. by John Law, 196–233. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cheung, Martha P.Y. 2011. “Reconceptualizing Translation—Some Chinese Endeavours.” Meta 56 (1): 1–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Craib, Ian. 1997. Classical Social Theory: An Introduction to the Thought of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Delisle, Jean, and Judith Woodsworth (eds). 1995. Translators through History. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Delisle, Jean (ed). 2002. Portraits de traductrices. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diaz Fouces, Oscar, and Esther Monzo (eds). 2010. “Applied Sociology in Translation Studies.” MonTI (2).Google Scholar
Dollerup, Cay. 1999. Tales and Translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Douglas, Mary. 2008, 1970. Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Duarte, João Ferreira, Alexandra Assis Rosa, and Teresa Seruya. 2006. Translation Studies at the Interface of Disciplines. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. 2006, 1897. On Suicide. Trans. Robin Buss. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
. 2004, 1989. Readings from Emile Durkheim. ed. by Kenneth Thompson. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 1982, 1895. The Rules of Sociological Method and Selected Texts on Sociology and Its Method. edited with an introduction by Steven Lukes. Trans. W.D. Halls. London: Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Elias, Norbert. 1978, 1970. What Is Sociology? Trans. Stephen Mennell, and Grace Morrissey. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Flotow, Luise von. 1997. Translation and Gender. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Gambier, Yves, and Luc van Doorslaer (eds). 2010. Handbook of Translation Studies, Vol. 11. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. 1971. “The ‘Individual’ in the Writings of Emile Durkheim.” European Journal of Sociology 12 (2): 210–228. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gile, Daniel, Gyde Hansen, and Nike K. Pokorn (eds). 2010. Why Translation Studies Matters. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halverson, Sandra. 2010. “Translation.” In Handbook of Translation Studies, Vol. 11, ed. by Yves Gambier, and Luc van Doorslaer, 378–384. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hermans, Theo. 1999. Translation in Systems: Descriptive and System-Oriented Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Inghilleri, Moira (ed). 2005. “Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Interpreting.” Special Issue. The Translator 11(2). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jakobson, Roman. 2000, 1959. “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation.” In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. by Lawrence Venuti, 113–118. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kinnunen, Tuija, and Kaisa Koskinen (eds). 2010. Translators’ Agency. Tampere: Tampere University Press.Google Scholar
Luhmann, Niklas. 1975. Macht. Stuttgart: Enke.Google Scholar
Lukes, Steven. 1971. “Prolegomena to the Interpretation of Durkheim.” European Journal of Sociology 12 (2): 183–209. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meylaerts, Reine. 2008. “Translators and (their) Norms: Towards a Sociological Construction of the Individual.” In Beyond Descriptive Translation Studies: Investigations in Homage to Gideon Toury, ed. by Anthony Pym, Miriam Shlesinger, and Daniel Simeoni, 91–102. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McElduff, Siobhán, and Enrica Sciarrino (eds). 2011. Complicating the History of Western Translation. The Ancient Mediterranean in Perspective. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Pym, Anthony. 1998. Method in Translation History. Manchester, UK: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Ricci, Ronit, and Jan Van der Putten (eds). 2011. Translation in Asia: Theories, Practices, Histories. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Robinson, Douglas. 1991. The Translator’s Turn. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
. 1997. Translation and Empire: Postcolonial Theories Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Rundle, Christopher, Paul St-Pierre, Theo Hermans, and Dirk Delabastita. 2012. “Translation as an Approach to History.” Translation Studies 5 (2): 232–248. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Simon, Sherry. 1996. Gender in Translation: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Transmission. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Snell-Hornby, Mary. 2006. The Turns of Translation Studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. “The Turns of Translation Studies.” In Handbook of Translation Studies, Vol. 11, ed. by Yves Gambier, and Luc van Doorslaer, 366–370. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Kenneth. 2004. “Preface to the Revised Edition.” In Durkheim, xii–xiv.
Torikai, Kumiko. 2009. Voices of the Invisible Presence. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Toury, Gideon. 1982. “A Rationale for Descriptive Translation Studies.” Dispositio 71: 22–39.Google Scholar
. 1995. Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tymoczko, Maria. 2006. “Reconceptualizing Translation Theory. Integrating Non-Western Thought about Translation.” In Translating Others, ed. by Theo Hermans, 13–32. Manchester and Kinderhook, New York: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
(ed). 2010. Translation, Resistance, Activism. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Tyulenev, Sergey. 2011. Applying Luhmann to Translation Studies: Translation in Society. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 2012a. Translation and the Westernization of Eighteenth-Century Russia: A Social-Systemic Perspective. Berlin: Frank & Timme.Google Scholar
. 2012b. “Systemics and Lifeworld of Translation.” In Translation and Philosophy, ed. by Lisa Foran, 139–155. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
. 2012c. “Imposed Expansion or Exposed Not-Quite-Au-Faitness?” [URL]. Accessed 15 October 2012.
. 2013. “Translating in the Public Sphere: Birth Pangs of a Developing Democracy in Today’s Russia.” SALALS. Special Issue: Translation in Developmental Contexts 31 (4): 469–479.Google Scholar
. 2014. Translation and Society: An Introduction. London and New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wallimann, Isidor, Nicholas Ch. Tatsis, and George V. Zito. 1977. “On Max Weber’s Definition of Power.” Journal of Sociology 13 (3): 231–235. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Way, Catherine. 2008. “Translation as Social Action.” Conference presentation. [URL]. Accessed 21 December 2011.
Wolf, Michaela. 2010. “Sociology of Translation.” In Handbook of Translation Studies, Vol. 11, ed. by Yves Gambier, and Luc van Doorslaer, 337–343. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wolf, Michaela, and Alexandra Fukari (eds). 2007. Constructing a Sociology of Translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zlateva, Palma (ed. and trans). 1993. Translation as Social Action: Russian and Bulgarian Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Jia, Hui & Zhenhao Qi
2022. Power and Ideology in South African Translation: A Social Systems Perspective. Critical Arts 36:5-6 ► pp. 197 ff. DOI logo
Botha, Maricel
2020. Social Systems Theory—Fundamentals and Application. In Power and Ideology in South African Translation [Translation History, ], ► pp. 15 ff. DOI logo
Botha, Maricel
2020. Introduction. In Power and Ideology in South African Translation [Translation History, ], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Vandepitte, Sonia
2017. Recognizing Social Aspects of Translation. In The Handbook of Translation and Cognition, ► pp. 165 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Weili & Xiangdong Li
2017. Translation studies communities in Spain and South Korea. Translation and Interpreting Studies 12:2 ► pp. 278 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.