Cover not available

Article published In: From Disruptions to New Beginnings: The evolution of translation (studies) through technologies
Edited by Federico Gaspari and Silvia Bernardini
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 11:3] 2025
► pp. 361–383

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Reconfiguring space in translation

A look beyond established paradigms

 | University of Trieste
Published online: 19 August 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00172.pal
Abstract
The successful history of Translation Studies (TS) as an academic discipline was founded on its ability to combine methods and insights from neighbouring disciplines and on its ongoing dialogue with the translation profession. Along the way, TS developed and refined a series of paradigms and tenets accepted by the majority of scholars. These include dichotomic distinctions such as ‘source vs target’, and an emphasis on translations as “facts of the target culture” (Toury, Gideon. 2012. Descriptive Translation Studies — and Beyond. Revised ed. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). In today’s post-globalized world, the international language regime is still largely one in which English acts as the global lingua franca and translation as “a tool of distribution” (. 2016. Translation Solutions for Many Languages: Histories of a Flawed Dream. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) which operates on the basis of a one-to-many geometry hinging on the lingua franca. However, new socio-cultural and technical factors have emerged with a direct impact on the practice of cross-language communication. Superdiversity and cosmopolitanism (Bielsa, Esperança. 2016. Cosmopolitanism and Translation: Investigations into the Experience of the Foreign. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) are today features of most societies and communities. Technology has revolutionized access to information from the point of view of both producers and receivers, with content now available in new, mostly “disembodied” (Littau, Karin. 2016. “Translation and the Materialities of Communication.” Translation Studies 9 (1): 82–96.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), formats. Language-wise, English is playing an increasingly significant role as a target language, not only in international communication but also in English-speaking countries. This paper illustrates how human geographers and sociologists have described the ways in which space is being reconfigured in today’s highly interconnected societies, and describes some increasingly significant or common translation scenarios that result from these reconfigurations of space.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Space and translation
  • 3.Space reconfigured — and some effects on the concept of translation
  • 4.New and changed translation scenarios
    • 4.1Translation in multilingual environments
    • 4.2Translation into English as a lingua franca — or not
    • 4.3Source-motivated translation
    • 4.4Translation flows
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (78)
References
Albert, Richard, Giulia Andrade, Pietro Faraguna, and David Landau, eds. 2023. The 2022 Global Review of Constitutional Law. Trieste: EUT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alhussein, Akkad. 2020. “Target-Cultural ‘Facts’ — Do They Really Exist? A Critical Assessment of Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies.” Transletters. International Journal of Translation and Interpreting 41: 1–21.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, Chris. 2006. The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More. New York: Hyperion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beck, Ulrich. 2002. “The Cosmopolitan Society and Its Enemies.” Theory, Culture & Society 19 (1–2): 17–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. The Cosmopolitan Vision. Translated by Ciaran Cronin. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bernardini, Silvia, Adriano Ferraresi, and Federico Gaspari. 2010. “Institutional Academic English in the European Context: A Web-as-corpus Approach to Comparing Native and Non-native language.” In Professional English in the European Context: The EHEA Challenge, ed. by Angeles Linde López, and Rosalia Crespo Jiménez, 27–53. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bielsa, Esperança. 2016. Cosmopolitanism and Translation: Investigations into the Experience of the Foreign. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “Introduction. The Intersection between Translation and Globalization.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Globalization, ed. by Esperança Bielsa, and Dionysios Kapsaskis, 1–10. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2023. A Translational Sociology: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Politics and Society. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bielsa, Esperança, and Dionysios Kapsaskis, eds. 2020. The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Globalization. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. 2007. “Sociolinguistic scales.” Intercultural Pragmatics 4 (1): 1–19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Castells, Manuel. 2000. The Rise of the Network Society. The Information Age. 2nd ed. Vol. 11. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Castro, Olga, and Laura Linares. 2022. “Translating the Literatures of Stateless Cultures in Spain: Translation Grants and Institutional Support at the Frankfurt Book Fair.” Perspectives 30 (5): 792–810.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cresswell, T. 2009. “Place.” In International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 169–77. Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cronin, Michael. 2003. Translation and Globalization. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Translation and Identity. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cronin, Michael, and Sherry Simon, eds. 2014a. The City as Translation Zone. Special Issue of Translation Studies 7 (2).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014b. “Introduction: The City as Translation Zone.” Translation Studies 7 (2): 119–132.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cussel, Mattea. 2020. “Transnational and Global Approaches in Translation Studies.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Globalization, ed. by Esperança Bielsa, and Dionysios Kapsaskis, 113–127. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
D’hulst, Lieven, and Kaisa Koskinen, eds. 2020. Translating in Town: Local Translation Policies during the European 19th Century. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferraresi, Adriano, and Silvia Bernardini. 2015. “Institutional Academic English and its Phraseology: Native and Lingua Franca Perspectives.” In English for Academic Purposes. Approaches and Implications, ed. by Paul Thompson, and Giuliana Diani, 225–244. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flew, Terry. 2018. “Post-Globalisation.” Javnost — The Public 25 (1–2): 102–109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gentile, Paola. 2023. “Combining Translation Policy and Imagology. The Case of Dutch Literature in Italy.” In Translation Flows: Exploring Networks of People, Processes and Products, ed. by Ilse Feinauer, Amanda Marais, and Marius Swart, 225–245. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. 1984. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haldrup, M. 2009. “Local–Global.” In International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 245–255. Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harvey, David. 1989. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heilbron, Johan. 1999. “Towards a Sociology of Translation: Book Translations as a Cultural World-System.” European Journal of Social Theory 2 (4): 429–444. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. “Translation as a Cultural World System.” Perspectives 8 (1): 9–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heilbron, Johan, and Gisèle Sapiro. 2018. “Politics of Translation: How States Shape Cultural Transfers.” In Literary Translation and Cultural Mediators in “Peripheral” Cultures, ed. by Diana Roig-Sanz, and Reine Meylaerts, 183–208. Cham: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hermans, Theo. 1999. Translation in Systems: Descriptive and Systemic Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
House, Juliane. 1997. Translation Quality Assessment: A Model Revisited. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jenkins, Henry. 2006. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A. 2016. “What Is (Not) Web Localization in Translation Studies: A Prototype Approach.” The Journal of Internationalization and Localization 3 (1): 38–60. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lefevere, André, and Susan Bassnett. 1990. “Proust’s Grandmother and the Thousand and One Nights. The ‘Cultural Turn’ in Translation Studies.” In Translation, History and Culture, ed. by Susan Bassnett, and André Lefevere, 1–13. London: Pinter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Littau, Karin. 2016. “Translation and the Materialities of Communication.” Translation Studies 9 (1): 82–96.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mansell, Richard. 2017. “Where Do Borders Lie in Translated Literature? The Case of the Changing English-Language Market.” TranscUlturAl: A Journal of Translation and Cultural Studies 9 (2): 47–63. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “Strategies for Success? Evaluating the Rise of Catalan Literature.” In Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations, ed. by Rajendra Chitnis, Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen, Rhian Atkin, and Zoran Milutinovic, 126–144. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “Small yet Powerful: The Rise of Small Independent Presses and Translated Fiction in the UK.” In Translating Asymmetry — Rewriting Power, ed. by Ovidi Carbonell i Cortés, and Esther Monzó-Nebot, 269–289. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meylaerts, Reine. 2006. “Conceptualizing the Translator as a Historical Subject in Multilingual Environments A Challenge for Descriptive Translation Studies?” In Charting the Future of Translation History, ed. by Georges L. Bastin, and Paul F. Bandia, 59–79. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. “Translational Justice in a Multilingual World: An Overview of Translational Regimes.” Meta 56 (4): 743–757. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nord, Christiane. 1997. Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nye, Joseph S. 1990. “Soft Power.” Foreign Policy 801: 153–171.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Hagan, Minako. 1996. The Coming Industry of Teletranslation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palumbo, Giuseppe. 2013. “Divided Loyalties? Some Notes on Translating University Websites into English.” Cultus: The Journal of Intercultural Mediation and Communication 61: 95–108.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Studying ELF Institutional Web-Based Communication by Universities: Comparison and Contrast with English Native Texts.” In English for Academic Purposes. Approaches and Implications, ed. by Paul Thompson, and Giuliana Diani, 245–261. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “‘Visible’ at Last? Some Notes on English as a Target Language and Translated Books in the US.” ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries 18 (1): 55–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peruzzo, Katia. 2019. National Law in Supranational Case-Law: A Linguistic Analysis of European Court of Human Rights Judgments in English. Trieste: EUT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2023. “Legal Terms That Travel: Constraints to Presenting National Legal Terminology to International Audiences.” In Handbook of Terminology, Vol. 31, ed. by Łucja Biel, and Hendrik J. Kockaert, 152–172. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pokorn, Nike K. 2023. “Translation and Diaspora: The Role of English Literary Translations in Slovene Émigré Periodicals in the US.” Target 35 (2): 262–284.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pratt, Mary Louise. 1992. Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pym, Anthony. 2000. Negotiating the Frontier: Translators and Intercultures in Hispanic History. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. “Globalization and the Politics of Translation Studies.” Meta 51 (4): 744–757. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. Translation Solutions for Many Languages: Histories of a Flawed Dream. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pym, Anthony, and Grzegorz Chrupala. 2005. “The Quantitative Analysis of Translation Flows in the Age of an International Language.” In Less Translated Languages, ed. by Albert Branchadell, and Lovell Margaret West, 27–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scarpa, Federica. 2020. Research and Professional Practice in Specialised Translation. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schneider, Britta, and Theresa Heyd. 2021. “Introduction.” In Bloomsbury World Englishes. Volume 1: Paradigms, ed. by Britta Schneider, and Theresa Heyd, 1–6. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simon, Sherry. 1999. “Translating and Interlingual Creation in the Contact Zone: Border Writing in Quebec.” In Post Colonial Translation: Theory and Practice, ed. by Susan Bassnett, and Harish Trivedi, 58–74. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Translating Montreal: Episodes in the Life of a Divided City. Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Cities in Translation: Intersections of Language and Memory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. “Translation Zones/Spaces.” In A History of Modern Translation Knowledge. Sources, concepts, effects, ed. by Lieven D’hulst, and Yves Gambier, 331–336. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. “Turns.” In A History of Modern Translation Knowledge. Sources, concepts, effects, ed. by Lieven D’hulst, and Yves Gambier, 143–148. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steger, Manfred B., and Paul James. 2019. Globalization Matters: Engaging the Global in Unsettled Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, John B. 2010. Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Timofejeva, Gita. 2024. “Translation and localization: what’s the difference?” [URL]
Toury, Gideon. 2012. Descriptive Translation Studies — and Beyond. Revised ed. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon, and José Lambert. 1989. “On Target’s Targets.” Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 1 (1): 1–7.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence. 2008. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vertovec, Steven. 2009. Transnationalism. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Warf, Barney. 2011. “Excavating the Prehistory of Time-Space Compression.” Geographical Review 101 (3): 435–446. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wenzlhuemer, Roland. 2007. “The Dematerialization of Telecommunication: Communication Centres and Peripheries in Europe and the World, 1850–1920.” Journal of Global History 2 (3): 345–372. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zanettin, Federico. 2021. News Media Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhou, Xiaoyan, and Sanjun Sun. 2017. “Bibliography-Based Quantitative Translation History.” Perspectives 25 (1): 98–119.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue