Power and trust: an academic researcher's perspective on working with interpreters as gatekeepers
Power and trust: an academic researcher's perspective on working with interpreters as gatekeepers
Interpreters are often considered to be a form of gatekeeper to communication and understanding in situations where researchers do not speak the same language as the people who they wish to interview. The conventional best practice model poses the interpreter as a neutral conduit linking the interviewer to the interviewee. Using experiences from two research projects, in this paper I challenge this model to uncover the complex interplays of power and trust in the relationships between interpreters and the imagined communities to whom they are positioned as gatekeepers, and between interpreters and the social researchers who they work alongside. I draw out some of the tensions around power and trust in the alignments and distinctions assumed, claimed and experienced in these relationships.
interpreters, power, trust, distinction, imagined community, relational
Edwards, Rosalind
e43912c0-f149-4457-81a9-9c4e00a4bb42
Edwards, Rosalind
e43912c0-f149-4457-81a9-9c4e00a4bb42
Edwards, Rosalind
(2013)
Power and trust: an academic researcher's perspective on working with interpreters as gatekeepers.
International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 16 (6).
(In Press)
Abstract
Interpreters are often considered to be a form of gatekeeper to communication and understanding in situations where researchers do not speak the same language as the people who they wish to interview. The conventional best practice model poses the interpreter as a neutral conduit linking the interviewer to the interviewee. Using experiences from two research projects, in this paper I challenge this model to uncover the complex interplays of power and trust in the relationships between interpreters and the imagined communities to whom they are positioned as gatekeepers, and between interpreters and the social researchers who they work alongside. I draw out some of the tensions around power and trust in the alignments and distinctions assumed, claimed and experienced in these relationships.
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Edwards IJSRM final text for upload.doc
- Author's Original
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Accepted/In Press date: 2013
Keywords:
interpreters, power, trust, distinction, imagined community, relational
Organisations:
Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 354573
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/354573
ISSN: 1364-5579
PURE UUID: 8d1a7c2d-de9c-455a-95f8-cb67e4ea78ec
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Date deposited: 15 Jul 2013 15:05
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:37
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