Exploring a conceptual space for studying translation and development

Abstract

This article argues that the field of translation studies would benefit if scholars expanded their linguistic, comparative literature and individualist biases to include the social, in particular the development of the social. It does so by founding its argument in complexity thinking, arguing for an approach that is hierarchical, non-linear, paradoxical, and non-equilibrium in its assumptions. The article links with arguments about the semiotic substructure to the emergence of social reality, arguing that it provides translation studies scholars the theoretical keys to theorising their work in terms of development studies. Development, as one of many cases of intersystemic interaction, thus falls within the ambit of translation studies. The article closes with an agenda for future research in this regard.

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2013, 31(4): 403–414