‘Translation in Research: Empirical, Conceptual and Methodological Considerations
26th May 2016
Keele Hall, Keele University
Aims of the workshop:
Increasingly, research projects are located across the globe and therefore situated in countries, regions and institutions which are culturally, socially, politically and linguistically diverse. Researchers collect therefore empirical data that is frequently expressed in local languages. Likewise, scholars draw on multiple bodies of knowledge, schools of thoughts and philosophers who have expressed their perspectives within different traditions and through languages ‘other than English’. Yet at the crucial moment of dissemination of knowledge and in particular at the increasingly publication stage, in particular the language diversity ‘disappears’ as if ‘other languages’, experiences and perspective not (easily) expressible in English do not exist and do not matter.
The workshop therefore aims to provide a forum where researchers can voice and discuss their experiences of conducting empirical and conceptual research ‘in other languages’ and how they dealt with the translation process, which invariably accompanies the dissemination/publication stage of knowledge creation. Or, researchers may have had to rely on translators and interpreters when conducting their empirical research. These, experiences, too, are part of the research process, which usually remains hidden and under-explored.
The workshop contains talks by experienced researchers, whose work is multilingual in character and who have had to find solutions to issues of translation and the presentation of ‘foreign’ data in their published work.
NB: Participants in the workshop need to have had some exposure to issues of translation – be it in terms of collected empirical data which needed to be translated or in terms of using concepts or ideas which ‘do not exist’ in the English language. The small group work is based on such experiences.
About the presenters:
Dvora Yanow, Guest Professor in Wageningen University’s Department of Social Sciences, Communication, Philosophy, and Technology Sub-Department, is a policy/political and organizational ethnographer and interpretive methodologist whose research and teaching are shaped by an overall interest in questions of the generation and communication of knowing and meaning in organizational and policy settings. Her current research topics include state-created categories for race-ethnic identity, immigrant integration policies and citizen-making practices, research ethics policies and practices, and practice studies. Her most recent book, Interpretive Research Design: Concepts and Processes (Routledge 2012), with Peregrine Schwartz-Shea, is the first volume in their co-edited Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods; and the second edition of their co-edited Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Methods and the Interpretive Turn is now out (ME Sharpe 2014). She has written about translation in the tensions between local and hierarchical ways of knowing (articulated in “Translating local knowledge at organizational peripheries,” British Journal of Management 15/S1 [2004], S9-S25) and, in similar processes, between different logics of scientific inquiry (in various methodological writings).
Susanne Tietze, PhD, is Professor of Management at Keele University, Keele Management School. Her current research focuses on the generation of management knowledge from a language-sensitive perspective and also on the knowledge transfer within international work contexts and the role of translation in this transformative processes. Here, she is particularly interested in the situated agency of para-professional translators and interpreters. She has published (with Holden and Michaelova) the Rougledge Companion to Cross Cultural Management (2015) and a special issues on ‘languages’ in the Journal of International Business Studies (2014) (with Brannen and Piekkari).
Nigel Holden entered the world of management education and research in 1981, when he embarked on his PhD at Manchester Business School after a career in exporting and trade promotion. He retired from full-time academic life in December 2010, having previously held professorships in cross-cultural management in the UK, Denmark and Germany. He the Centre for International Business as a Visiting Research Fellow in May 2011. A widely travelled management researcher and educator, he has given more than 70 keynote addresses at conferences in several European countries, the USA, Taiwan, Thailand and Colombia.
Nigel’s fields of publication embrace cross-cultural management, knowledge management, international marketing, management change in Russia and East/Central Europe, marketing in Japan, language and translation issues in international business, intercultural business communication, talent management and business history. In 2007 he helped to co-found the European Journal of International Management, of which he is an associate editor. He was a contributor the first special issue on language in the Journal of International Business Studies in 2014 and he was senior academic editor of the Routledge Companion to Cross-Cultural Management published in 2015. In 2015-16 he will be a Visiting Professor at the University of Regensburg in Germany.
Dr Huiping Xianis a lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organization Behaviour Division at the University of Sheffield Management School. She received her doctorate from Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom. Her research interests include women's careers, HRM issues in Chinese organizations, qualitative research methods, cross-cultural research and translation issues in international research.
Huiping Xian will deliberate upon the less evident implications of culture and cultural conceptions. Many research projects involve researchers and participants from different cultural backgrounds and many researchers prefer to write and publish their works in a common language, for example English, to attract the attentions of a wider audience. Translation therefore becomes a crucial issue in this ‘globalisation’ of business and management research. Frequently, there are words or concepts that are hard to say or do not exist in another language, and other risks whereby the audience of the target culture may respond differently to the ‘same’ prepared text. Drawing on her experience of translating between Chinese and English, Huiping will discuss the various issues regarding translation in the research (see also Temple and Young, 2004) and publication process and explore different ways of overcoming linguistic and cultural differences between languages. Huiping will also discuss the role of the translator in the process of cross-cultural knowledge production (Xian, 2008).
Intended audience
- Researchers working overseas [e.g., on ‘global’ policy, international relations or management studies-related research questions] who have had to find strategies to cope with language-issues they encountered during their fieldwork or during the publication stage;
- Doctoral students and early career researchers whose empirical data contains ‘non-English’ data, which had to be translated into English for publication purposes;
- Doctoral students and early career researchers who draw on concepts and corpus of ideas which are not easily expressible in and through the English language;
- Editors and doctoral supervisors who have to advise career-young researchers who are engaged in such projects as above.
Programme
9.30-9.45 / Registration and coffee/tea9.45-10:00 / Welcome and brief introductions of all participants
10:00-11:00 / Talk: On Translation: crossing linguistic, cultural, practice and methods boundaries (Profs. Dvora Yanow and Susanne Tietze)
11:00-11.30 / Coffee/tea break
11.30-12.30 / Talk: Translating experiences: Dilemmas from a Chinese-English Perspective (Dr.Huiping Xian)
12.30-1.30 / Lunch
1.30-2.30 / What is being translated in International Business and by Whom? (Prof. Nigel Holden)
2.30- .00 / Coffee/tea break
3.00- 4.15 / Topic-focused small group discussions
4.15 –5.00 / Plenary
Costs
As NARTI and the host institution will cover the full cost of the event including lunch and refreshments during the workshop, confirmed participants are expected to cover the cost of their own travel and any accommodation as required.
How to register for the workshop:
Places are limited so please complete the online registration form at:
You will be notified if you have received a place in due course – please do not make any travel arrangements until your place is confirmed.
How to get to Keele University:
If you would like to enquire about car parking availability, please contact to arrange this.
***If you have any further questions about this event, please contact ***
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