ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the relevance of translation for sociology with respect to the reception of sociological theory and the history of sociological works, as well as to methodological issues regarding sociological research and interpretation. Drawing on already existing accounts developed in interdisciplinary translation studies, it is argued that an awareness of the complex nature of translation is fundamental for a self-understanding of the sociological endeavour and for questioning the assumed immediacy of the reception of sociological inquiry. The often overlooked significance of translation in the international circulation of theory also calls attention to the nature and unequal distribution of global information flows and helps to shed new light on processes of cultural globalisation. The chapter is divided into three main parts that deal, first, with the role of translation in the international circulation of social theory and its importance for an intellectual history of the discipline; second, its intervention in social research and the methodological implications thereof, and third, with a reflexive approach to translated sociology.
