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The ambiguity of interpreting: Ethnographic interviews with public service interpreters
Linnaeus University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work. (Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies;SWAM;TOLK)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0641-7096
2023 (English)In: The Routledge Handbook of Public Service Interpreting / [ed] Laura Gavioli;Cecilia Wadensjö, Abingdon: Routledge, 2023, p. 32-45Chapter in book (Refereed)
Sustainable development
SDG 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Abstract [en]

This chapter explores ethnographic interviews as a method to document the experiences of public service interpreters working in Swedish welfare services. Service encounters are here theoretically defined in the context of postcolonial migration since, similarly to historical colonial encounters, they include administrative procedures, different and sometimes incompatible experiences and worldviews, and they are inherently unequal. Consequently, the in-between position of public service interpreters is ambiguous, as their mandate is to support the equal representation of all participants in an impartial manner. In order to explain the ethnographic interview method, this chapter mainly draws on two such interviews. In the first one, a public service interpreter positions herself as an outside observer and a witness of the encounters in which she performs and highlights what she sees as fatal shortcomings of the institutions concerned. In the second interview, the perspective of the interpreter is that of an insider, a co-participant in an ethically loaded and complex situation. In the conclusion, I argue that through the interpreter’s experiences, more can be learned about the ambiguity of their position. In a wider context, the experiences of public service interpreters offer insights into how authorities work, about how welfare institutions respond to global migration, and the consequences of a changing linguistic landscape.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Abingdon: Routledge, 2023. p. 32-45
Keywords [en]
Ambiguity, Ethnograpic interviews, Public service interpreting, Social work
National Category
International Migration and Ethnic Relations
Research subject
Social Sciences, Social Work
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-119282DOI: 10.4324/9780429298202-4Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85148141558ISBN: 9781032391151 (print)ISBN: 9780429298202 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-119282DiVA, id: diva2:1736261
Available from: 2023-02-13 Created: 2023-02-13 Last updated: 2023-04-06Bibliographically approved

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Gustafsson, Kristina

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CiteExportLink to record
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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf