Sociology of translation by Helle Dam
This article concludes a special issue on the translating profession. Taking all contributions as... more This article concludes a special issue on the translating profession. Taking all contributions as its data set, it provides an overview of how academic articles on translation practice participate in boundary work in the field of translation. Boundary work, i.e. creating and policing boundaries, is analysed from three angles: we look at definitions of professional translation (i.e., who are considered insiders), internal differentiations and border disputes inside the field, and border disputes between insiders and outsiders. The results emphasise the necessity to recognise the researchers’ and trainers’ role in boundary work and to pay attention to assumed boundaries researchers may unintentionally reinforce. The findings also highlight that researchers and
practitioners may have different views and conflicting interests.
Books by Helle Dam
The Changing Role of the Interpreter: Contextualising Norms, Ethics and Quality Standards, Marta Biagini, Michael S. Boyd & Claudia Monacelli (Eds.), Routledge, 2017
This volume provides a critical examination of quality in the interpreting profession by deconstr... more This volume provides a critical examination of quality in the interpreting profession by deconstructing the complex relationship between professional norms and ethical considerations in a variety of sociocultural contexts. Over the past two decades, the profession has compelled scholars and practitioners to take into account numerous factors concerning the provision and fulfilment of interpreting. Building on ideas that began to take shape during an international conference on interpreter-mediated interactions, commemorating Miriam Shlesinger, held in Rome in 2013, the book explores some of these issues by looking at the notion of quality through inter-preters' self-awareness of norms at work across a variety of professional settings, contextualising norms and quality in relation to ethical behaviour in everyday practice. Contributions from top researchers in the field create a comprehensive picture of the dynamic role of the interpreter as it has evolved, with key topics revisited by the addition of new contributions from established scholars in the field, fostering discussion and further reflection on important issues in the field of interpreting. This volume will be key reading for scholars, researchers and graduate students in interpreting and translation studies, pragmatics, discourse analysis and multilingualism.
Papers by Helle Dam
Moving Boundaries in Translation Studies, 2018
In Translation Studies, there are frequent proposals for conceptual innovation: new concepts, new... more In Translation Studies, there are frequent proposals for conceptual innovation: new concepts, new distinctions, new superordinate categories, new taxonomies, new ways of seeing things, new metaphors. All these are viewed here as interpretive hypotheses. As such, they cannot be empirically falsified, but they nevertheless can and should be tested pragmatically, in terms of costs and benefits and consequences, and compared to alternatives. Some recent proposals concerning new conceptual boundaries are discussed. Conceptual arguments can sometimes be framed in misleading factual rhetoric, giving rise to non-desirable consequences in the form of fallacious inferences.
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Sociology of translation by Helle Dam
practitioners may have different views and conflicting interests.
Books by Helle Dam
Papers by Helle Dam