Translational encounters in multilingual religioscapes: issues of materiality and technology

This article examines multilingual religious spaces in Galway and Belfast as sites of translational encounter and explores how the material and technological dimensions of translation both emerge from and enable meaningful interactions within and across religious spaces serving migrants. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews, it analyses how material arrangements (spatial layout, acoustics, bodies, devotional objects, and media technologies) shape the conditions for producing, experiencing, and valuing translation. Conceptually grounded in work on religioscapes and materiality, the article argues that translation in these multilingual religious settings is fundamentally multisensory, affective, and relational, embedded in practices of worship, care, and inclusion. By foregrounding translation as a situated practice unfolding through dynamic material and technological configurations, it contributes to debates on materiality and non-professional mediation in contexts of migration, and its focus on religioscapes provides a revealing lens for understanding the complexities, affordances, and limits of translational encounters in everyday life.