This book analyses the translation policies and practices of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), engaging in critical questions around the ways in which translation can redress power dynamics between INGOs and the people they work with, and the role of activist researchers in contributing to these debates.

The volume examines the duality of translation and interpreting in INGOs, traditionally undervalued and under-resourced while simultaneously acknowledged as a powerful tool in ensuring these organisations work according to their own values of equal access to information, dialogue, and political representation. Drawing on over ten years of ethnographic fieldwork and interview data with a wide variety of INGOs, Tesseur offers unique insights into if and how INGOs plan for translation and interpreting needs while also critically reflecting on her own experience and the ways in which activist researchers like her can ensure social justice efforts are fully reflected in their own working practices. Encouraging a new interdisciplinary research agenda, the volume seeks to raise the profile of language and translation in humanitarian and development contexts and cross-disciplinary dialogue in scholarship on these issues.

The book will be of interest to scholars in translation and interpreting studies, sociolinguistics, development studies, and international relations.

About the Author

Wine Tesseur is Coordinator of External & Internal Communications at the Belgian NGO Trias and also freelances as an NGO consultant. She has published extensively in international journals and guest-edited special issues for Translation Spaces (2018) and the Journal of War & Culture Studies (2019). She is the co-author of Development NGOs and Languages: Listening, Power and Inclusion (2020).

Book Information
ISBN 9781032331317
Author Wine Tesseur
Format Paperback
Page Count 182
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g