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Studies in Translation Theory and Practice
Volume 24, 2016 - Issue 4
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Articles

Language, culture, and translation in disaster ICT: an ecosystemic model of understanding

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Pages 557-575 | Received 18 Sep 2014, Accepted 13 Dec 2015, Published online: 02 May 2016
 

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how the roles of language, culture, and translation could be modelled within a framework of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) used in disasters. It is based on empirical data drawn from a case study of foreign nationals resident in Japan for the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The case study revealed that the ICT used in the 2011 disaster was diverse; that interesting relationships existed between the forms of ICT used; that the use of this ICT varied across time, space, and user; and that translation in the disaster was a highly-contextual process of written and oral interlingual and intercultural transfer carried out mostly by volunteers. These findings have been combined in the paper with concepts taken from ecosystems theory in the study of ecology to propose a model of an ICT ecosystem in a disaster setting. The model describes and explains the forces and factors that come together to create the environment in which ICT is used by human actors during a disaster; namely information circulation, power, network capacity, infrastructure, location, income, language, and culture. The model also explains how translation can be conceptualised as a subsidy to assist the central force driving the system.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the referees for their detailed and constructive feedback on earlier versions of this paper and Dr Jay Marlowe of the University of Auckland for his invaluable advice on conducting research in disaster settings.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Translation is used in this paper as a catch-all term to include interpreting and any other form of interlingual transmission or cultural mediation.

2. Japan's 1947 Disaster Relief Act was implemented in relief operations in areas contained in the following 10 prefectures: Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Aomori, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba, Tokyo, Niigata, and Nagano (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, Citation2011). Thus, we consider this geographic area to be the official disaster zone. Records of the numbers of foreign residents in this geographic area can be found in Japanese in E-Stat (Citation2011). From these records, we see that: in the three worst-affected prefectures (Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima) there were 28,830 residents; in the remaining disaster-hit prefectures (Aomori, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba, Tokyo, Niigata, and Nagano) there were 649,704 residents.

3. www.sinsai.info (accessed 6 July 2015).

4. We are restricting our discussion in this paper to our object of inquiry: ICT and how it relates to language, culture, and translation. It should be noted, though, that other non-ICT forms of communication and information gathering were also important to those who experienced the disaster (e.g. word-of-mouth, newspapers and other printed material, noticeboards, public meetings, etc.).

5. does not present a strict, quantitative comparison, as all three studies were carried out with different research aims, methodologies, and philosophies. Nonetheless, the data are presented here to indicate that foreign and Japanese residents appear to have experienced ICT differently in the 2011 disaster.

6. We adopt the following definition of a model: ‘A simplified representation or description of a system or complex entity, esp one designed to facilitate calculations and predictions’ (Collins English Dictionary, Citation1994). Accordingly, while a model frequently is used to make predictions, it does not have to generate predictive understanding to be considered a model; the key point is it describes a complex entity in simpler terms. The case study methodology in this research is not suited to producing a predictive model, but we argue that it allowed us to create a new, simplified understanding of translation and ICT during a disaster that can be applied to further disaster contexts.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by DCU and the National Development Plan under a Daniel O'Hare PhD Scholarship. Fieldwork for this research was also part-funded by DCU's School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies and Centre for Translation and Textual Studies.

Notes on contributors

Patrick Cadwell

Patrick Cadwell, BBS, MA, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Adapt Research Centre and the Centre for Translation and Textual Studies in Dublin City University. He is a translator who lived and worked in Tokyo for more than eight years and was residing in Japan during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. These experiences motivated his research into the role of translation in disaster settings. His other research interests include translation ecology, ethnographic and case study research methodologies, and the ethical issues involved in researching disasters.

Sharon O'Brien

Sharon O'Brien, BA, MA, PhD, is a lecturer in translation studies at Dublin City University and primarily conducts research on translation technology with a focus on controlled language, machine translation, post-editing, and localisation. She teaches software localisation, translation theory, translation technology, and research methods for translation studies. She has co-authored a book on research methods for translation studies (St. Jerome, 2013) and edited a volume on cognitive explorations of translation (Continuum, 2011). She has also collaborated on numerous projects within the industry, specifically on the topics of machine translation, post-editing, and the dynamic framework for quality assessment in the localisation industry.

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