The Complexity of Social-Cultural Emergence

Reviews / Votes

In a time of diminished horizons for translation, when the profession in its current form feels the chill wind of automation, the ambition of this volume of essays is to be welcomed. Offering translation studies a future that is something other than an AI-compliant version of palliative care can only be a cause for celebration. By expanding the remit of what translation studies has traditionally been tasked to deal with, the essays bring in their wake a sense of excitement about the possibilities of the discipline. The utopian dimension to the project is all the more timely given the tendency of translation studies in recent years to become institutionally an adjunct of instrumentalist forms of translation technology. The depth, range, and conceptual scope of The Complexity of Social-Cultural Emergence shows how wrong-headed such a move is. Being open to the world's aliveness has always been the hallmark of translation in its most progressive moments. -- Michael Cronin, Trinity College Dublin, in Translation in Society 4:1 (2025).