Field Research on Translation and Interpreting

How do translation and interpreting work in everyday life? Where and in what forms do they occur, who is involved in them, and how much does the context shape what happens? What roles do technologies, other material resources, and the social environment play? What unique challenges arise and how are they dealt with? And what methods can be used to meaningfully study all these nuances? These are the questions that are addressed in this edited volume on field research in translation and interpreting studies. Field research is research that is conducted directly in the field i.e. on site in the real world and is a relatively new approach in translation and interpreting studies. Field researchers immerse themselves in the actual situations in which translation and interpreting take place in order to gain highly contextualized insights. This allows them to observe aspects that often remain invisible in more traditional methods such as text analysis, surveys, or experiments. The volume brings together contributions from international researchers who have conducted their studies in diverse locations such as refugee centers, UN missions, NGOs, or the workplaces of specialized translators. It not only offers fascinating insights into translation practices but also critically examines the research methods used to obtain them. The authors reflect on ethical issues, their own subjectivity, and their relationships with the people in their respective research fields. As one of the first books to comprehensively address field research in translation and interpreting studies, this volume makes an important contribution to laying the foundations of this emerging research area and highlights the diverse and dynamic world of translation and interpreting.