Translations 'in the making'

Based on the presentation of an ongoing research program inspired by the works of the French philosopher and anthropologist Bruno Latour – a program that consists of following translation projects “in the making” in three Montréal-based independent publishing houses – this article discusses the benefits and implications of designing a sociology of translation that would focus on the production end rather than the reception end, looking at translation from the viewpoint of its manufacture within publishing houses and integrating ethnography among the research methodologies used. Drawing more particularly upon the observations and analyses deriving from the fieldwork conducted so far in Montréal, this essay suggests how Latour’s “sociology of translation” could help overcome the limits of the polysystemic model.