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W.I. Thomas
i
F. Znaniecki

Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej
2011
Tom VII Numer 2


Author - Supplied Abstracts and Keywords


  Krzysztof T. Konecki
       University of Łódź, Poland
  Dominika Byczkowska
       University of Łódź, Poland

Editorial: Translation of Sociological Books- Quality, Problems, Challenges…

The article presents problems of thematic issue of PSJ, in which a number of authors, engaged in various sociological subdisciplines. The text presents many various approaches to sociological translations and possible solutions (such as online translation forum)

Keywords:
Sociology of Translations; Social Worlds; Sociology of Work; Gender
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  Krzysztof T. Konecki
       University of Łódź, Poland

"Squarness" as a phenomenon in the sociological texts’ translations process.

The paper is a sociological commentary on work made during translation of scientific texts, in this case, some sociological texts (mainly books). It is based on the empirical research on “translation work”. The interpretive perspective comes from the foregoing subdisciplines of sociology: sociology of work and sociology of management. These subdisciplines seem to be helpful in analysis of translations and may inspire the sociology of translation. The main goal of the paper is to show intersubjectivity problem in the systems of decisions made during translations and work on scientific translations in Poland. These decisions have often got an ad hoc character and are often based on business, not academic, criterions (lack of scientific editors of translations or editors/translators are chosen according to the financial criterion not the competence one). The decisions of choosing the scientific editors are also based on criterion of the editor’s position in the hierarchy of academic-social-world and on basic and tacit assumptions regarding high qualifications and the expertise of editors (or sometimes translators) with academic titles. However, it does not protect us against the errors in translations and even could constitute the cause of generating errors. There is a lack of discussions on what should be translated, and how should be translated. The decisions and work on translations are closed in a certain “square” of decisions (publisher, scientific editor, translator, author of original text) to which the academic world and experts in a particular subdiscipline have no access. Probably this problem concerns not only translations of sociological books but is also present in other disciplines.
The texts recipients are ignored in the system of translation decisions. "The closed translation square" (publisher, editor, translator, possibly author of original text) creates the other side as a “square of reception”. The closed circle of readers is left without any knowledge about quality of translations, or without the communication channels that would allow any expression of their dissatisfaction or an intellectual and linguistic disagreement regarding some aspects of texts’ translation. Both the translations’ politics, and the lack of authentic scientific discussion during the translation of sociological texts process create the divisions inside the academic world that constantly reproduce and create the increase of poor sociological texts translations’ quality.
Creation of a platform for the discussion on the aforementioned topics can improve greater responsibility of the subjects participating in the translation’s process, improve the quality of translation, and finally open the “translation square”. Open Access translating projects realized on the on-line journals’ websites could be some remedy to the “squarness of translation” which by making the process of translation more open, could turn it into an intersubjective endeavour in the academic world.

Keywords:
translations; sociology of translation; sociology of organizations and management; sociology of work; symbolic interactionism; social worlds
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  Marek Czyżewski
       University of Łódź, Poland

Polish translations of foreign humanities texts and "knowledge-based society"

The real boom of Polish translations of foreign professional literature in the humanities is not a value in itself. In this field, as in many others, the quantity is not associated with quality, and there are so many misleading translations that they begin to threaten the quality of education. The author proposes criteria for assessing the quality of translation and presents illustrations of situations where these criteria are not met. Reasons of the decline in the quality of translations are examined in the area of complex conditionings, both economic and cultural, in particular those relating to the actual function of the so-called knowledge-based society. The skeptical overview of the knowledge-based society (and the mainstream sociology as its intellectual legitimation) is encouraged by the findings of the Foucauldian concept of "governmentality". Seen in this light, the knowledge-based society is proving to be one of the "dispositivs" of neoliberal "governmentality". It would be worthwhile to consider whether there might be some reasonable alternative to the extensive model of publishing Polish versions of foreign scholarly literature enforced in recent years. The dominance of the "knowledge-based society" cannot be eliminated for a number of reasons but it should be avoided whenever possible, also in the field of translation. For this purpose, a list of recommendations has been proposed, whose application could limit the negative trends in the quality of translations.
Keywords:
Habermas and raisonnement; Criteria for translation quality assessment; Knowledge-based society; Foucault and "governmentality"; Remedial recommendations
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  Stanisław Burdziej
       Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland

Some problems with the Polish translation of Erving Goffman’s Frame Analysis – Translator’s Perspective

Abstract: Frame Analysis (1974) is probably the most important work written by Erving Goffman, however it was only recently translated into Polish. The author of this article (a sociologist and the translator of Goffman’s book) presents an overview of major problems involved in the process of this translation, especially those pertaining to main concepts introduced by Goffman. Among these are frame and framing, containment, keying, and flooding out. This paper also offers an attempt to adapt Goffman’s conceptual framework to a systematic analysis of the very process of translation (which could be treated, as it is argued) as a keying of the original text.

Keywords:
Frame analysis; Erving Goffman; Translation problems
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  Jan Winczorek
       University of Warsaw, Poland

Translations of Niklas Luhmann's works to Polish

The paper discusses the translations of Niklas Luhmann's works to Polish and presents social factors influencing their scope and nature. The findings are further interpreted in the light of a systemic theory of translations, based on the sociological concepts of Luhmann himself, as presented in the paper.

Keywords:
Niklas Luhmann; Translation theory; Translations; Editorial process
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  Paweł Załęski
       Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences

Tönnies and civil society: Origins of a modern concept of the state

While reading a Polish translation of Community and Society of Ferdinand Tönnies one may conclude that it is associationism that constitutes the main attribute of modern society. It is so because translator decided to write about association instead of society in a place of a word Gesellschaft. However, closer lecture makes one come to the conclusion that in his book Tönnies referred not only to the society but to a special kind of society – a civil society, that was also described as an economic society. According to Tönnies it is not associationism but economic activity that is a main attribute of the modern society.
Keywords:
Civil society; Civil code; Community
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  Izabela Desperak
       University of Łódź, Poland

Gender perspective in Polish sociology versus (non)existing translations

Paper focuses on the role of translation in building and widening of sociological horizon. It points out the significance of quantity, quality, up-to-dateness, availability, and indispensability of translations. It also analyses functions of didactic texts’ (textbooks and readers) translations defining, together with academic publications, the borders of sociological mainstream canons. The paper shows how translations have broadened sociological mainstream by gender perspective, and mentions crucial translations from this field. The analysis includes examples of texts not present in the canon – still not translated into Polish or translated too late, and those translated early enough to enter the canon.
Keywords:
Translation; Gender; Canon
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  Magdalena Nowicka
       University of Warsaw, Poland

Apparatus, deployment, arrangement... – Michel Foucault's notion of dispositif, its translations and their implications for Post-Foucauldian analysis of power

Michel Foucault introduced the notion of dispositif of sexuality in The Will to Knowledge (1976). Soon afterwards he took part in a discussion organized by a French magazine “Ornicar?” during which he was asked to explain synthetically his concept of dispositif. Over the next decades this short, and rather forced utterance was translated into German and English. These translations differ from each other not only with regard to their solutions how to substitute a French term dispositif with another word – accordingly German or English – but also because of a variety of details that are meaningful for the profiles of dispositif analysis and based on Foucault's thought postulated in research. This theoretical and methodological perspective has being developed since Foucault's death in 1984, especially since the 1990's. One can indicate numerous and significant differences between the German- and English-language dispositif analysis, as well as between both of them and the Foucault's original concept. There is a need to question if the researchers who identify dispositif with a social network or with a material infrastructure of discourse (inter alia communication technology and social practices mediated through this technology) still follow Foucault's concept of power-knowledge to which they refer so willingly? This problem seems to be notably important at present – when more and more researchers in Poland show their interest in dispositif’s concept. Therefore, a demand to translate its key terms into Polish emerges. In this article the dilemmas of Polish and other translations are presented on samples of several Foucault's utterance in "Ornicar?" translations and fragments of contemporary texts from the field of German- and English-language dispositif’s analysis
Keywords:
Dispositif; Dispositif’s analysis; Michel Foucault; Power-knowledge; Discoursive and non-discoursive practices; Translation of terms; Network; Giorgio Agamben
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  Robert Prus
       University of Waterloo, Canada

Poetic Expression and Human Enacted Realities: Plato and Aristotle Engage Pragmatist Motifs in Greek Fictional Representations

Poetic expressions may seem somewhat removed from a pragmatist social science, but the history of the development of Western civilization is such that the (knowingly) fictionalized renderings of human life-worlds that were developed in the classical Greek era (c700-300BCE) appear to have contributed consequentially to a scholarly emphasis on the ways in which people engage the world. Clearly, poetic writings constitute but one aspect of early Greek thought and are best appreciated within the context of other developments in that era, most notably those taking shape in the realms of philosophy, religion, rhetoric, politics, history, and education.
These poetic materials (a) attest to views of the human condition that are central to a pragmatist philosophy (and social science) and (b) represent the foundational basis for subsequent developments in literary criticism (including theory and methods pertaining to the representation of human enacted realities in dramaturgical presentations).
Thus, while not reducing social theory to poetic representation, this statement considers the relevance of early Greek poetics for the development of social theory pertaining to humanly enacted realities.
Keywords:
Poetics; Fiction; Classical Greek; Plato; Aristotle; Pragmatism; Symbolic Interaction; Representation; Reality; Literary Criticism
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