Translacja i dominacja. Struktura przepływu tłumaczeń w światowych i polskich naukach społecznych
Translation and Domination. The Structure of Translation Flows in World and Polish Social Sciences

Summary/Abstract: The article shows the global hierarchy of social sciences, analyzed in the frames of books’ translation flows. The author, using the UNESCO database (Index Translationum), examines the structure and evolution of the system and points out that translation exchanges are deeply involved in global power relations. Two main elements are introduced: the distinction between import and export of the translations (“from” and “into” a given language) and “the balance of the translation exchanges” which can be calculated analogously to the balance of trade. These analytical tools are used to determine countries’ position in the intellectual world-system with special emphasis on the centre-peripheral relations. Calculations presented in the article indicate the increasing gap between the centre and the periphery what led to the situation in which Western ideas become more and more popular while the ideas produced in the periphery and semi-periphery are marginalized. The position of the Polish social science remains stable (in spite of openness to the Western ideas after 1989), they are located in the semi-periphery.

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