Translating productively: texts, contexts and concepts

This paper examines the role of language and translation in social science research with a focus on methodological issues. So far, these have received relatively little attention in publications on social science methodologies as well as in lively languagerelated debates in human geography journals of recent years. The lack of methodological concern is surprising, as there seems to be an increasing interest in international and comparative research and practice. However, the literature suggests that in order to draw out the political implications of translation, which are otherwise glossed over, it needs to go beyond transferring text from source language to target language as a seamless reproduction of the original. Like this, it becomes an issue of methodological concern. I therefore suggest approaching translation as a productive open-ended process that pays close attention to specificities of contexts and concepts and makes cultural difference visible throughout the research process. This approach aims at decentring taken-for-granted assumptions about the clarity of meaning in the source as well as in the target language. In reviewing the existing literature on issues of language, power and translation this paper builds on my experiences of doing a PhD as a foreign student in England.