29(1) - 2017

Studying language and translation policies in Belgium: What can we learn from a complexity theory approach?

Reine Meylaerts

Titre

Studying language and translation policies in Belgium: What can we learn from a complexity theory approach?

Résumé

Since the European democratization processes of the long 19th century, the very core of the legal and political potential to act as a citizen was formed by communicative resources. Communication between authorities and citizens through one (or more) national language(s) thus became of the utmost importance. That is why, studying language and translation policies is crucial to understand the role of language and translation in the construction of democratic citizenship. This article analyzes the role of language and translation policies for the construction and evolution of democratic citizenship in multilingual Belgium based on the insights of complexity theory. If we really want to understand if, how, and when authorities and citizens were able to communicate with each other in 19th-century Belgium (and elsewhere), we have to deal with a myriad of sometimes contradictory and unequally applied language and translation rules, practices and beliefs. We therefore need to study processes of interaction that enable us to understand the complex and paradoxical relations between society and individual, between the local and the central/global, between agency and structure, between translation and non-translation, between official and unofficial translation, between translation and other transfer processes. We need to study translation as an emergent phenomenon, constitutive of social reality.

Mots-clés

Translation policy, language policy, Belgium, 19th century, complexity theory

DOI 10.17462/para.2017.01.05

21 avril 2017
  29(1) - 2017