Cover not available
Article published In:
Translation Practice in the Field: Current research on socio-cognitive processes
Edited by Hanna Risku, Regina Rogl and Jelena Milosevic
[Translation Spaces 6:1] 2017
► pp. 159–180

Knowing in translation practice

A practice-theoretical perspective

ORCID logo | University of Manchester

This paper addresses the relationship between practice and knowledge in translation. It employs practice theory to conceptualize ‘knowing-in-practice’, introducing a theoretical approach to translation studies that enables an analytical focus on the practice of translating, rather than on the cognitive processes of translators or the textual features of translations. Against this practice-theoretical backdrop, knowing is construed as an emergent phenomenon that is sited in translation practice. Drawing on an empirical analysis of translating in a research organization, the paper then illustrates how this situated and embodied knowing is materially and discursively mediated and transpires in translation practice. Through its interdisciplinary approach, this research offers new sociological perspectives on the human and material interdependencies constituting translation in the workplace.

Keywords: practice theory, knowing-in-practice, embedded knowing, embodied knowing, translation practice, workplace research
Article outline
  • 1.Conceptualizing practice and knowledge
    • 1.1Practice theory
    • 1.2Knowing-in-practice
    • 1.3Knowledge and knowing in translation studies
  • 2.A study of knowing in and through translation practice
    • 2.1The site of translation practice
    • 2.2Knowing as situated in time and place
    • 2.3Knowing in regimes of doings and sayings
    • 2.4Knowing as materially mediated
    • 2.5Knowing as embodied
    • 2.6Knowing as relational
    • 2.7Interconnectedness of practices and knowings
  • 3.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.6.1.08olo
References
Bain, Rod, and Christopher Mueller
2016 “Understanding Practice(s) and Practising.” In Knowledge and Practice in Business and Organisations, edited by K. Orr, S. Nutley, S. Russell, R. Bain, B. Hacking, and C. Moran, 30–42. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Blackler, Frank
1995 “Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations: An Overview and Interpretation.” Organization Studies 16 (6): 1021–1046. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Bräuchler, Birgit, and John Postill
eds. 2010 Theorising Media and Practice. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
British Standards Institution
2015 “ISO 17100:2015 Translation Services – Requirements for Translation Services.” BSI Standards Limited.Google Scholar
Brown, Anna, Gail Greig, and Emilia Ferraro
2016 “Sensing Bodies: The Aesthetics of Knowing and Practising.” In Knowledge and Practice in Business and Organisations, edited by K. Orr, S. Nutley, S. Russell, R. Bain, B. Hacking, and C. Moran, 85–96. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brown, John Seely, and Paul Duguid
1991 “Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Towards a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation.” Organization Science 2 (1): 40–57. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre
1977 Outline of a Theory of Practice. Translated by R. Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1990 The Logic of Practice. Translated by R. Nice. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Buzelin, Hélène
2006 “Independent Publisher in the Networks of Translation.” TTR: traduction, terminologie, rédaction 19 (1): 135–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 “Translations ‘in the Making’.” In Constructing a Sociology of Translation, edited by M. Wolf and A. Fukari, 135–169. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, Raymond
2012 “Reclaiming Agency, Recovering Change? An Exploration of the Practice Theory of Theodore Schatzki.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 42 (3): 283–303. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Chesterman, Andrew, and Emma Wagner
2002 Can Theory Help Translators? A Dialogue between the Ivory Tower and the Wordface. Manchester: St Jerome.Google Scholar
Cook, Scott D. N., and John Seely Brown
1999 “Bridging Epistemologies: The Generative Dance Between Organizational Knowledge and Organizational Knowing.” Organization Science 10 (4): 381–400. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Ehrensberger-Dow, Maureen
2014 “Challenges of Translation Process Research at the Workplace.” In Minding Translation, guest edited by R. Muñoz, 355–383. Special Issue 1 of MonTI. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Ehrensberger-Dow, Maureen, and Sharon O’Brien
2015 “Ergonomics of the Translation Workplace: Potential for Cognitive Friction.” Translation Spaces 4 (1): 98–118. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Hermans, Theo
2007 The Conference of the Tongues. Manchester: St Jerome.Google Scholar
Gherardi, Silvia
2006 Organizational Knowledge: The Texture of Workplace Learning. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
2009 “Introduction: The Critical Power of the ‘Practice Lens’.” Management Learning 40 (2): 115–128. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony
1979 Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure, and Contradiction in Social Analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1984 The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
González Davies, Maria, and Vanessa Enríquez Raído
2016 “Situated Learning in Translator and Interpreter Training: Bridging Research and Good Practice.” The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 10 (1): 1–11. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Hanna, Sameh
2016 Bourdieu in Translation Studies: The Socio-Cultural Dynamics of Shakespeare Translation in Egypt. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Inghilleri, Moira
guest ed. 2005 Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Interpreting. Special Issue 11 (2) of The Translator.Google Scholar
Jonas, Michael, and Beate Littig
eds. 2017 Praxeological Political Analysis. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kiraly, Don
2000 A Social Constructivist Approach to Translator Education: Empowerment from Theory to Practice. Manchester: St Jerome.Google Scholar
2012 “Growing a Project-Based Translation Pedagogy: A Fractal Perspective.” Meta 57 (1): 82–95. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Lafeber, Anne
2012 “Translation Skills and Knowledge – Preliminary Findings of a Survey of Translators and Revisers Working at Inter-Governmental Organizations”. Meta 57 (1): 108–131. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno
2005 Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lave, Jean, and Etienne Wenger
1991 Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
LeBlanc, Matthieu
2013 “Translators on Translation Memory (TM): Results of an Ethnographic Study in Three Translation Services and Agencies.” Translation & Interpreting 5 (2): 1–13.Google Scholar
Nicolini, Davide
2009 “Zooming In and Out: Studying Practices by Switching Theoretical Lenses and Trailing Connections.” Organization Studies 30 (12): 1391–1418. DOI logo.Google Scholar
2011 “Practice as the Site of Knowing: Insights from the Field of Telemedicine.” Organization Science 22 (3): 602–620. DOI logo.Google Scholar
2012 Practice Theory, Work, and Organization: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nonaka, Ikujiro
1994 “A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation.” Organization Science 5 (5): 14–37. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Nutley, Sandra, Rod Bain, Bonnie Hacking, Clare Moran, Kevin Orr, and Shona Russell
2016 “Introducing the Aims, Background and Content of This Book.” In Knowledge and Practice in Business and Organisations, edited by K. Orr, S. Nutley, S. Russell, R. Bain, B. Hacking, and C. Moran, 1–13. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Olohan, Maeve, and Elena Davitti
2017 “Dynamics of Trusting in Translation Project Management: Leaps of Faith and Balancing Acts.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Orlikowski, Wanda J.
2002 “Knowing in Practice: Enacting a Collective Capability in Distributed Organizing.” Organization Science 13 (3): 249–273. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Orr, Kevin, Sandra Nutley, Shona Russell, Rod Bain, Bonnie Hacking, and Clare Moran
eds. 2016 Knowledge and Practice in Business and Organisations. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
PACTE
2014 “First Results of PACTE Group’s Experimental Research on Translation Competence Acquisition: The Acquisition of Declarative Knowledge of Translation.” In Minding Translation, guest edited by R. Muñoz, 85–115. Special Issue 1 of MonTI. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Parry, Richard
2014 “Episteme and Techne.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by E. N. Zalta. Last modified Fall 2014 Accessed March 10, 2017. [URL].
Polanyi, Michael
1962 Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
1966 The Tacit Dimension. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Postill, John
2010 “Introduction: Theorising Media and Practice.” In Theorising Media and Practice, edited by B. Bräuchler and J. Postill, 1–32. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Reckwitz, Andreas
2002 “Toward a Theory of Social Practices A Development in Culturalist Theorizing.” European Journal of Social Theory 5 (2): 243–263. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Reich, Ann, Donna Rooney, Anne Gardner, Keith Willey, David Boud, and Terry Fitzgerald
2015 “Engineers’ Professional Learning: A Practice-Theory Perspective.” European Journal of Engineering Education 40 (4): 366–379. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Rennstam, Jens, and Karen Lee Ashcraft
2014 “Knowing Work: Cultivating a Practice-Based Epistemology of Knowledge in Organization Studies.” Human Relations 67 (1): 3–25. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Risku, Hanna
2009 Translationsmanagement: Interkulturelle Fachkommunikation Im Informationszeitalter. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
2013 “Knowledge Management and Translation.” In Handbook of Translation Studies: Volume 4, edited by Y. Gambier and L. van Doorslaer, 92–97. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Risku, Hanna, Angela Dickinson, and Richard Pircher
2010 “Knowledge in Translation Studies and Translation Practice: Intellectual Capital in Modern Society.” In Why Translation Studies Matters, edited by D. Gile, G. Hansen, and N. K. Pokorn, 83–94. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Risku, Hanna, Nicole Rossmanith, Andreas Reichelt, and Lukas Zenk
2013 “Translation in the Network Economy: A Follow-up Study.” In Tracks and Treks in Translation Studies, edited by C. Way, S. Vandepitte, R. Meylaerts, and M. Bartłomiejczyk, 29–49. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Risku, Hanna, and Florian Windhager
2013 “Extended Translation: A Sociocognitive Research Agenda”. Target 25 (1): 33–45. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Schatzki, Theodore R.
1996 Social Practices: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Human Activity and the Social. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 “Introduction: Practice Theory.” In The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, edited by T. R. Schatzki, K. Knorr-Cetina, and E. von Savigny, 1–14. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
2002 The Site of the Social: A Philosophical Account of the Constitution of Social Life and Change. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
2005 “Peripheral Vision: The Sites of Organizations.” Organization Studies 26 (3): 465–84. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Schatzki, Theodore R., Karin Knorr-Cetina, and Eike von Savigny
eds. 2001 The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Shove, Elizabeth, Mika Pantzar, and Matt Watson
2012 The Dynamics of Social Practice. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Paul, Chris Warhurst, and George Callaghan
2001 “Ignorant Theory and Knowledgeable Workers: Interrogating the Connections between Knowledge, Skills and Services.” Journal of Management Studies 38 (7): 923–942. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Tooman, Tricia, Cinla Akinci, and Sandra Davies
2016 “Understanding Knowledge and Knowing.” In Knowledge and Practice in Business and Organisations, edited by K. Orr, S. Nutley, S. Russell, R. Bain, B. Hacking, and C. Moran, 17–29. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tsoukas, Haridimos
1996 “The Firm as a Distributed Knowledge System: A Constructionist Approach.” Strategic Management Journal 171: 11–25. DOI logo.Google Scholar
2005 Complex Knowledge: Studies in Organizational Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tyulenev, Sergey
2012 Applying Luhmann to Translation Studies: Translation in Society. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
van Rooyen, Marlie
2013 “Structure and Agency in News Translation: An Application of Anthony Giddens’ Structuration Theory.” Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 31 (4): 495–506. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Warde, Alan
2005 “Consumption and Theories of Practice.” Journal of Consumer Culture 5 (2): 131–153. DOI logo.Google Scholar
2016 The Practice of Eating. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 6 other publications

Anna Kuźnik
2019. Les conceptualisations contemporaines de l’activité de traduction élaborées par les responsables d’entreprises de traduction françaises. Między Oryginałem a Przekładem 25:46 ► pp. 25 ff. DOI logo
Delistathi, Christina
2023. Translator work practices and the construction of the correct interpretation of Marxism in post-war Greece. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 35:4 ► pp. 573 ff. DOI logo
D’hulst, Lieven & Yves Gambier
2018. General introduction. In A History of Modern Translation Knowledge [Benjamins Translation Library, 142], ► pp. 2 ff. DOI logo
Góngora-Goloubintseff, José Gustavo
2022. Assessing the impact of translation guidelines in Wikipedia. Translation Spaces 11:2 ► pp. 254 ff. DOI logo
Skibińska, Elżbieta
2023. Krążenie wiedzy przekładoznawczej: lektury polskich studentów. Między Oryginałem a Przekładem 29:1(59) ► pp. 23 ff. DOI logo
Xueni, Zhang & Zheng Binghan
2023. Material, competence and meaning in the fansub community. Translation, Cognition & Behavior 6:1 ► pp. 87 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 april 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.