Post on 14-Dec-2015
Interpreting and Social Change beyond Civil Society:
the case of Babels at the cross-roads between the Alter-Globalisation Movement
and the Interpreting Community
Julie BoériUniversity of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
CTIS Seminar Series
University of Manchester07 of October 2010
OBJECTIVES
Case study of Babels: social change in civil society
Beyond the case study: social change in the profession, scholarship and society
OUTLINE Babels, the Social Forum and the Alter-
Globalisation Movement Activist interpreting in human & social
sciences Civil society contexts: inherent tensions Why a narrative approach? Babels case study: main findings Engagement in research, in the profession
and in society: last developments
The World Social Forum is an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Humankind and between it and the Earth. Article 1 of the Porto Alegre Charter of Principles
WORLD SOCIAL FORUM
To be an international network of volunteer interpreters and translators who want to use their skills and expertise for the benefit of those social and citizens’ movements that adhere to the charter of principles of the Social Forums; and to permit the sharing of their analyses and experiences and to co-ordination their actions at an international level. Babels Charter
Babels is a network of volunteer interpreters and translators. It was born from the process of the Social Forums, experimental meeting spaces for movements and organisations from different countries and regions. Without interlinguistic and intercultural communication these spaces could not exist. About us
Outside of Translation Studies, translation and interpreting are neglectedPostcolonialism: rhetoric of resistance outstrips the power of social change that T/I have at their disposal
ACTIVIST T/I IN HUMAN & SOCIAL SCIENCES
Conference Interpreting versus Community Interpreting
Focus on textual intervention, within the realm of mediation
The Social Forum: envisioning social change
Is the Social Forum a space for a plurality of movements to communicate ?
Is it a movement that struggles against corporate-led globalisation ?
Deliberation vs Struggle
Participation vs Representation
Process vs Event
Is the organisation of the Social Forum open to its participants ?
Is it reserved to a minority who decide for the others ?
Is the Social Forum a Process to innovate and experience alternatives ?Is it a series of conference events ?
Social Forum = deliberative space and participative process
Social Forum = event for a unitary and representative struggle
Horizontality
vs
Verticality
Babels = political Actor
Interpreting = constitutive of the Social Forum
Babels = facilitator of communication
Interpreting = solidarity towards socio-political issues
Tensions between Principles and Practices
NATURE OF THE TENSIONS
Diversity of organisational principles within the open space
Dynamics of Resistance and Co-optation
Pressures on Babels to both implement politics and deliver logistics
WHY A NARRATIVE APPROACH? refers to concrete sets of events and relationships
between events and protagonists in a given spatial and temporal configuration, and as such makes sense of our lives, of that of our communities and orients behaviour and judgement.
makes it feasible to focus on individual positionings and the ways in which they shape institutional positions, without the individual being fully subsumed by the institution.
constitutes an inescapable prism through which we understand and co-construct the world, which discard objectivity.
BABELS CASE STUDY
Methodology
Babels’ narrative: recurrent themes- Scope of involvement- Financial structure- Decision making processes
The re-narration of Babels in the profession
BABELS’ SCOPE OF INVOLVEMENT Florence ESF: organicity to the Social Forum Paris ESF: autonomy from the Social Forum Ethical concerns:- Potential overlap with professional market
vs- Efficiency of social change, solidarity, liberation
through volunteer work
Personal narratives vs institutional positioning
Result: maintain autonomy but guarantees
BABELS’ FINANCIAL STRUCTURE Florence ESF: organicity to the Social Forum Paris ESF: autonomy from the Social Forum
- Logistics: efficiency of delivering of interpreting
vs- Politics: patterns of formalisation instead of experimentation
Brussels meeting (2004): organicity to the Social Forum fundraising but no engagement with structure
Practice since then: full organicity in terms of fundraising and structure
BABELS’ DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES
Issue of Autonomy vs. Accountability
Autonomy: emancipation from power hierarchies, experimentation
Mechanisms of accountability: Babels-France: green light group
Evolvement of a project-based structure (autonomy)
combined with a permanent structure (Babels Protocols) with establishment of consensus decision making processes.
RE-NARRATING BABELS
Peter Naumann’s letter Debate on the AIIC online forum
Naumann, Peter (2005) “Babels and Nomad – Observations on the Barbarising of communication at the 2005 World Social Forum”, in Communicate! http://aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/page1800.htm
2 communicative purposes:
Convince the Social Forum not to resort to Babels Undermine Babels image
Challenging theSocial Forum narrative
Resorting to Babels reproduce the commodification of conference interpreting
The 5th World Social Forum = repetition of conference interpreting history
The Social Forum should hire the best interpreters of the old generation
Conference interpreters = neutral and objective
Conference interpreters are subordinated to speakers
Interpreters can only be assessed according to their competence
Moral values and beliefs are dangerous
Challenging theBabels narrative
Incommensurability of Narratives Commitment to
participation and horizontality
- Horizontal world- Collective participation
of and knowledge sharing among individuals from different backgrounds
Commitment to expertise and rationality
- Expertise-based hierarchical world
- Standards of competence, neutrality, working conditions
The debate on AIIC e-forumAt the core of the professional
community
Babels is re-narrated as Amateurish
Immoral
irrational
At the margins of the professional community
AIIC is re-narrated as Elitist
Undemocratic
Conformist
Negotiation from within vs. re-narration from outside
Reconciliation of Babels’ stance on volunteer activist interpreting with efficient and rational organisation of interpreting: desirability of the compromise?
SOCIAL CHANGE BEYOND CIVIL SOCIETY
Social Change in the profession: from deontology to ethics
Social Change in scholarship: from market to society
Social Change in the profession: from deontology to ethics
Neutrality / deontology Kahane’s critique of AIIC’s neglect of society and rigidity Members of the profession call’s for democratising the
professional community, so far monopolised by an elite that serves the interests of an elite (closed sponsorship system, monopol of the market)
De Manuel’s call for going beyond the fragmentation of interpreting into conference, community, ad hoc, professional forms of interpreting
Be more reflexive on the ethics of interpreting for civil society
Social Change in scholarship: from market to society
1st International Forum on Translation/Interpreting and Social Activism
Granada Declaration: - T/I as a tool of both resistance and dominance- knowledge at the service society- linguistic diversity in the field and beyond- inclusive and mutually supportive community of T/I
Training methodology and Curriculum Design: influence of the socio-critical paradigm so as to train skilled professionals but also educate reflexive professionals and citizens