1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. InContext
  4. Volume 2, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 2, Issue 1
  • ISSN 2799-6190
  • E-ISSN: 2799-8592
PDF

Abstract

The fields of disaster studies and crisis communication have been established for a long time. However, the role of translation in these fields has largely been overlooked until recently. A considerable body of research is now emerging that investigates translation as a crisis communication tool. This paper serves to provide a snapshot in time of the progress to date. A brief introduction to the disciplines of disaster studies and crisis communication is provided and crisis translation is situated at the nexus of these two areas. Following from this, the article considers the position of crisis translation in relation to topics of interest to translation studies scholars such as conflict, development, and community translation. Some of the main topics that have received recent attention to date, such as emergency response policy, translation technology, citizen translator training and ethics are then introduced. The lack of recognition of translation as a crisis communication tool in emergency response policies is called out and recommendations for such policies are highlighted. The essential role of volunteers in crisis response and how this relates to translation is discussed, along with the ethical considerations that need to be taken into account. The potential and challenges of translation technology to assist in all stages of crises is then elaborated. Taking a proposal for research directions in disaster studies as the basis, how translation studies can respond to that agenda is briefly considered. It is concluded that translation and interpreting research can contribute to the five ‘guiding principles’ of horizon scanning, interdisciplinarity, ethics, knowledge transfer and impact. Equally, crisis translation can also easily contribute to the five research ‘thrusts’ of justice, risk, habitation zones, data and technology, and infrastructure for humanity. Indeed, the work to date on crisis and translation has already made significant contributions to these topics, but there is considerable potential for further developments.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Available under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.54754/incontext.v2i1.12
2022-04-28
2026-04-21

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.54754/incontext.v2i1.12
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Agrawal, Avinash J. and Manoj B. Chandak
    (2007) Mobile interface for domain specific machine translation using short messaging service. Fourth International Conference on Information Technology (ITNG’07), Las Vegas.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Alexander, David E.
    (2017) Why we should regard 2017 as the centenary of disaster risk reduction. Preventionweb.net. RetrievedDecember 17, 2021fromhttps://www. preventionweb.net/blog/why-we-should-regard-2017-centenary-disaster-risk-reduction
     [Google Scholar]
  3. (2016) The game changes: “Disaster Prevention and Management” after a quarter of a century. Disaster Prevention and Management, 25(1), 2–10. 10.1108/dpm‑11‑2015‑0262
     https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm-11-2015-0262 [Google Scholar]
  4. Bernacka, Anna
    (2012) The importance of translation studies for development education. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, Spring(141), 110–115.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bosher, Lee, Ksenia Chmutina and Dewald van Niekerk
    (2021) Stop going around in circles: Towards a reconceptualisation of disaster risk management phases. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 30(4/5), 525–537. 10.1108/dpm‑03‑2021‑0071
     https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm-03-2021-0071 [Google Scholar]
  6. Bowker, Lynne and Jairo Buitrago Ciro
    (2019) Machine Translation and Global Research: Towards Improved Machine Translation Literacy in the Scholarly Community. Emerald Publishing. 10.1108/9781787567214
     https://doi.org/10.1108/9781787567214 [Google Scholar]
  7. Cadwell, Patrick
    (2019) Trust, distrust and translation in a disaster. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 29(2), 157–174. 10.1108/dpm‑11‑2018‑0374
     https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm-11-2018-0374 [Google Scholar]
  8. Cadwell, Patrick and Sharon O’Brien
    (2016) Language, culture, and translation in disaster ICT: An ecosystemic model of understanding. Perspectives, 24(4), 557–575. 10.1080/0907676x.2016.1142588
     https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676x.2016.1142588 [Google Scholar]
  9. Chen, Ningyang
    (2020) Semiotic resourcefulness in crisis risk communication: The case of COVID-19 posters. Language & Semiotic Studies, 6(3), 1–27.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Cheng, Yang
    (2018) How social media is changing crisis communication strategies: Evidence from the updated literature. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 26(1), 58–68. 10.1111/1468‑5973.12130
     https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.12130 [Google Scholar]
  11. Crack, Angela M.
    (2018) Language, NGOs and inclusion: The donor perspective. Development in Practice, 29(2), 159–169. 10.1080/09614524.2018.1546827
     https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2018.1546827 [Google Scholar]
  12. Del Pozo Triviño, Maribel
    (2020) Teaching police to work effectively with interpreters. InEva N. S. Ng & Ineke H. M. Crezee (Eds.), Interpreting in Legal and Healthcare Settings (pp.189–208). John Benjamins.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Doğan, Aymil
    (2016) Anybody down there? Emergency and disaster interpreting in Turkey. InM. Federici Federico (Ed.), Mediating Emergencies and Conflicts (pp.59–83). Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/978‑1‑137‑55351‑5_3
     https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55351-5_3 [Google Scholar]
  14. Drugan, Joanna
    (2020) Police communication across languages in crisis situations: Human trafficking investigations in the UK. InFederico M. Federici & Sharon O’Brien (Eds.), Translation in Cascading Crises (pp.46–66). Routledge. 10.4324/9780429341052‑3
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429341052-3 [Google Scholar]
  15. Duarte, Tiago, Rafael Prikladnicki, Fabio Calefato and Filippo Lanubile
    (2014) Speech recognition for voice-based machine translation. IEEE Software, 31(1), 26–31. 10.1109/ms.2014.14
     https://doi.org/10.1109/ms.2014.14 [Google Scholar]
  16. Fantinuoli, Claudio
    (2018) Interpreting and technology: The upcoming technological turn. InClaudio Fantinuoli (Ed.), Interpreting and Technology (pp.1–12). Language Science Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Federici, Federico M.
    (Ed.) (2016) Mediating Emergencies and Conflicts. Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/978‑1‑137‑55351‑5
     https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55351-5 [Google Scholar]
  18. Federici, Federico M. and Patrick Cadwell
    (2018) Training citizen translators: Design and delivery of bespoke training on the fundamentals of translation for New Zealand Red Cross. Translation Spaces, 7(1), 20–43. 10.1075/ts.00002.fed
     https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.00002.fed [Google Scholar]
  19. Federici, Federico M. and Sharon O’Brien
    (Eds.) (2020) Translation in Cascading Crises. Routledge. 10.4324/9780429341052
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429341052 [Google Scholar]
  20. Federici, Federico M., Minako O’Hagan, Sharon O’Brien and Patrick Cadwell
    (2019) Crisis translation training: Challenges arising from new contexts of translation. Cultus Journal, 121, 246–279. https://www.cultusjournal.com/files/Archives/Cultus_2019_12_013_ Federici_et-al.pdf
     [Google Scholar]
  21. FEMA
    FEMA (2018) A proposed research agenda for the emergency management higher education community. U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. https://training.fema.gov/hiedu/docs/latest/2018_fema_research_agenda_final-508%20(march%202018).pdf
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Footitt, Hilary and Michael Kelly
    (Eds.) (2012a) Languages and the Military, Alliances, Occupation and Peace Building. Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9781137033086
     https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137033086 [Google Scholar]
  23. (Eds.) (2012b) Languages at War, Policies and Practices of Language Contacts in Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9781137010278
     https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137010278 [Google Scholar]
  24. Gaunt, Caroline
    (2016) Ghostly entities and clichés: Military interpreters in conflict regions. InFederico M. Federici (Ed.), Mediating Emergencies and Conflicts: Frontline Translation and Interpreting (pp.179–208). Palgrave Macmillan.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Greenwood, Faine, Caitlin Howarth, Danielle Escudero Poole, Nathaniel A. Raymond and Daniel P. Scarnecchia
    (2017) The Signal Code: A human rights approach to information during crisis. Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. https://hhi.harvard.edu/publications/signal-code-human-rights-approach-information-during-crisis
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Heath, Robert L. and Dan O’Hair
    (Eds.) (2009) Handbook of Risk and Crisis Communication. Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Herranz, Sergio, Paloma Díaz, David Díez and Ignacio Aedo
    (2013) Studying social technologies and communities of volunteers in emergency management. Proceedings of the6th International Conference on Communities and Technologies — C&T ‘13, Munich. https://dl.eusset.eu/handle/20.500.12015/2610
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Hunt, Matthew, Sharon O’Brien, Patrick Cadwell and Dónal P. O’Mathúna
    (2019) Ethics at the intersection of crisis translation and humanitarian innovation. Journal of Humanitarian Affairs, 1(3), 23–32. 10.7227/jha.022
     https://doi.org/10.7227/jha.022 [Google Scholar]
  29. Krishnan, Sneha, Rohini Menon and Deepshikha Purwar
    . (forthcoming). Language and culture in pandemics and disasters: India’s frontline health response to COVID-19. InSharon O’Brien & Federico M. Federici Eds. Translating Crises. Bloomsbury.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Landahl, Mark R., DeeDee M. Bennett and Brenda D. Phillips
    (2019) Disaster research: Past, present, and future. InPatricia Leavy (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Methods for Public Scholarship (pp.208–238). 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190274481.013.35
     https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190274481.013.35 [Google Scholar]
  31. Lewis, William
    (2010, May27–28). Haitian Creole: How to build and ship an MT engine from scratch in 4 days, 17 hours, & 30 minutes. Proceedings of the14th annual conference of the European Association for Machine Translation, Saint-Raphaël.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Lewis, William, Robert Munro and Stephan Vogel
    (2011, July30–31). Crisis MT: Developing a cookbook for MT in crisis situations. Proceedings of the6th Workshop on Statistical Machine Translation, Edinburgh.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Marais, Kobus
    (2018) Introduction: Translation and development. The Translator, 24(4), 295–300. 10.1080/13556509.2019.1602306
     https://doi.org/10.1080/13556509.2019.1602306 [Google Scholar]
  34. (2014) Translation Theory and Development Studies. Routledge. 10.4324/9780203768280
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203768280 [Google Scholar]
  35. (2013) Exploring a conceptual space for studying translation and development. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 31(4), 403–414. 10.2989/16073614.2013.864439
     https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2013.864439 [Google Scholar]
  36. Marais, Kobus and Carmen Delgado Luchner
    (2018) Motivating the translation-development nexus: Exploring cases from the African continent. The Translator, 24(4), 380–394. 10.1080/13556509.2019.1594573
     https://doi.org/10.1080/13556509.2019.1594573 [Google Scholar]
  37. Marlowe, Jay
    (2020) Transnational crisis translation: Social media and forced migration. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 29(2), 200–213. 10.1108/dpm‑11‑2018‑0368
     https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm-11-2018-0368 [Google Scholar]
  38. Mileti, Dennis S.
    (1999) Disasters by Design: A Reassessment of Natural Hazards in the United States. Joseph Henry Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Morado Vázquez, Lucía and Jesús Torres del Rey
    . (forthcoming). Universal access through mobile devices in multilingual websites on the COVID-19 pandemic. InFederico M. Federici & Sharon O’Brien Eds. Translating Crises. Bloomsbury.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Moreno-Bello, Yolanda
    (2021) Narratives in conflict and the limits on the interpreter’s agency: A case study from the UN Peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Linguistica Antverpiensia, 201. 10.52034/lanstts.v20i.597
     https://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v20i.597 [Google Scholar]
  41. Ng, Eva N. S. and Ineke H. M. Crezee
    (Eds.) (2020) Interpreting in Legal and Healthcare Settings. John Benjamins. 10.1075/btl.151
     https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.151 [Google Scholar]
  42. NZMOCDEM
    NZMOCDEM (2013) Volunteer Coordination in CDEM. New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence Emergency Management. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2022fromhttps://www.civildefence.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/publications/dgl-15-13-volunteer-coordination-in-cdem.pdf
     [Google Scholar]
  43. O’Brien, Sharon
    (2019) Translation technology and disaster management. InMinako O’Hagan (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology (pp.304–318). Routledge. 10.4324/9781315311258‑18
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315311258-18 [Google Scholar]
  44. (2016) Training translators for crisis communication: Translators without Borders as an example. InFederico M. Federici (Ed.), Mediating Emergencies and Conflicts: Frontline Translating and Interpreting (pp.85–111). Palgrave Macmillan.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. O’Brien, Sharon and Patrick Cadwell
    . (forthcoming). Communicating COVID-19 in multiple languages: A maturity model assessment of Ireland’s crisis communication practice. Revista de Llengua i Dret / Journal of Language and Law, 771.
     [Google Scholar]
  46. (2017) Translation facilitates comprehension of health-related crisis information: Kenya as an example. Journal of Specialised Translation, 28(1), 23–51.
     [Google Scholar]
  47. O’Brien, Sharon, Patrick Cadwell and Tetyana Lokot
    (2022) Parallel pandemic spaces: Translation trust and social media. InTong King Lee & Dingkun Wang (Eds.), Translation and Social Media Communication in the Age of the Pandemic (pp.62–77). Routledge. 10.4324/9781003183907‑5
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003183907-5 [Google Scholar]
  48. O’Brien, Sharon and Federico M. Federici
    . (forthcoming). Translating crises: Beyond words to action. InFederico M. Federici & Sharon O’Brien Eds. Translating Crises. Bloomsbury.
     [Google Scholar]
  49. (2020) Crisis translation: Considering language needs in multilingual disaster settings. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 29(2), 129–143. 10.1108/dpm‑11‑2018‑0373
     https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm-11-2018-0373 [Google Scholar]
  50. O’Brien, Sharon, Federico M. Federici, Patrick Cadwell, Jay Marlowe and Brian Gerber
    (2018) Language translation during disaster: A comparative analysis of five national approaches. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 311, 627–636. 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.07.006
     https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.ijdrr.2018.07.006 [Google Scholar]
  51. O’Hagan, Minako
    (2011) Community translation: Translation as a social activity and its possible consequences in the advent of Web 2.0 and beyond. Linguistica Antverpiensia, 101, 1–10. 10.52034/lanstts.v10i.275
     https://doi.org/10.52034/lanstts.v10i.275 [Google Scholar]
  52. O’Mathúna, Dónal P. and Matthew R. Hunt
    (2020) Ethics and crisis translation: Insights from the work of Paul Ricoeur. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 29(2), 175–186. 10.1108/dpm‑01‑2019‑0006
     https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm-01-2019-0006 [Google Scholar]
  53. O’Mathúna, Dónal P., Carla Parra Escartín, Proinsias Roche and Jay Marlowe
    (2020) Engaging citizen translators in disasters: Virtue ethics in response to ethical challenges. Translation and Interpreting Studies, 15(1), 57–79. 10.1075/tis.20003.oma
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.20003.oma [Google Scholar]
  54. Ogie, Robert I., Sharon O’Brien and Federico M. Federici
    (2022) Towards using agent-based modelling for collaborative translation of crisis information: A systematic literature review to identify the underlying attributes, behaviours, interactions, and environment of agents. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 681, 102717. 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102717
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102717 [Google Scholar]
  55. Paulik, Matthias and Alex Waibel
    (2009) Automatic translation from parallel speech: Simultaneous interpretation as MT training data 2009 IEEE Workshop on Automatic Speech Recognition & Understanding, Moreno.
     [Google Scholar]
  56. Piller, Ingrid, Jie Zhang and Jia Li
    (2020) Linguistic diversity in a time of crisis: Language challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multilingua, 39(5), 503–515. 10.1515/multi‑2020‑0136
     https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2020-0136 [Google Scholar]
  57. Pym, Anthony and Bei Hu
    (2022) Trust and cooperation through social media: COVID-19 translations for Chinese communities in Melbourne. InTong King Lee & Dingkun Wang (Eds.), Translation and Social Media Communication in the Age of the Pandemic. Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  58. Quarantelli, Enrico Louis
    (1987) Disaster studies: An analysis of the social historical factors affecting the development of research in the area. International Journal of Mass Emergences and Disasters, 5(3), 285–310.
     [Google Scholar]
  59. (Ed.) (1998) What Is a Disaster?: Perspectives on the Question (1st ed.). Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  60. Rodríguez Vázquez, Silvia
    . (forthcoming). Accessible crisis communication for the blind and the visually-impaired: Challenges and recommendations for future action in multilingual settings. InFederico M. Federici & Sharon O’Brien Eds. Translating Crises. Bloomsbury.
     [Google Scholar]
  61. Rodríguez Vázquez, Silvia and Jesús Torres del Rey
    (2020) Accessibility of multilingual information in cascading crises. InFederico M. Federici & Sharon O’Brien (Eds.), Translation in Cascading Crises (pp.91–111). Routledge. 10.4324/9780429341052‑5
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429341052-5 [Google Scholar]
  62. Ruiz Rosendo, Lucía
    (2020) Interpreting for the Afghanistan Spanish Force. War & Society, 39(1), 42–57. 10.1080/07292473.2019.1701620
     https://doi.org/10.1080/07292473.2019.1701620 [Google Scholar]
  63. Ruiz Rosendo, Lucía and Clementina Maria Persaud
    (2019) On the frontline: Mediating across languages and cultures in peacekeeping operations. Armed Forces & Society, 45(3), 472–490. 10.1177/0095327x18755108
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327x18755108 [Google Scholar]
  64. Sciurba, Katie, Sera J. Hernandez and Reka C. Barton
    (2021) Humanizing the journey across the Mexico-U.S. border: Multimodal analysis of children’s picture books and the restroying of Latinx (im)migration. Children’s Literature in Education, 52(3), 411–429. 10.1007/s10583‑020‑09420‑x
     https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-020-09420-x [Google Scholar]
  65. Todorova, Marija
    (2020) Interpreting for refugees: Lessons learned from the field. InEva N. S. Ng & Ineke H. M. Crezee (Eds.), Interpreting in Legal and Healthcare Settings (pp.63–81). John Benjamins. 10.1075/btl.151.03tod
     https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.151.03tod [Google Scholar]
  66. Torres del Rey, Jesús and Lucía Morado Vázquez
    (2019) Transferring web accessibility through localization and internationalization standards. The Journal of Internationalization and Localization, 6(1), 1–24. 10.1075/jial.19002.tor
     https://doi.org/10.1075/jial.19002.tor [Google Scholar]
  67. Torres del Rey, Jesús and Silvia Rodríguez Vázquez
    (2016) New insights into translation-oriented, technology-intensive localiser education: Accessibility as an opportunity. Proceedings of theFourth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality, New York.
     [Google Scholar]
  68. Valero Garcés, Carmen
    . (forthcoming). Interpreters in violent conflicts: The perspectives of military personnel. InFederico M. Federici & Sharon O’Brien Eds. Translating Crises. Bloomsbury.
     [Google Scholar]
  69. Van Dijck, José and Donya Alinejad
    (2022) Translating knowledge, establishing trust: The role of social media in communicating the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands. InTong King Lee & Dingkun Wang (Eds.), Translation and Social Media Communication in the Age of the Pandemic. Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  70. Wang, Peng
    (2019) Translation in the COVID-19 health emergency in Wuhan: A crisis manager’s perspective. The Journal of Internationalization and Localization, 6(2), 86–107. 10.1075/jial.00014.wan
     https://doi.org/10.1075/jial.00014.wan [Google Scholar]
  71. Yamada, Masaru
    (2020) Language learners and non-professional translators as users. InMinako O’Hagan (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology (pp.183–199). Routledge. 10.4324/9781315311258‑11
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315311258-11 [Google Scholar]
  72. Zhang, Jie and Yuqin Wu
    (2020) Providing multilingual logistics communication in COVID-19 disaster relief. Multilingua, 39(5), 517–528. 10.1515/multi‑2020‑0110
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ multi-2020-0110 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.54754/incontext.v2i1.12
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): crisis; crisis communication; disaster studies; research agenda; translation; 번역; 연구 의제; 위기; 위기 커뮤니케이션; 재난학

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error