ABSTRACT
Collaborative work between researchers and practitioners as participants in the field of translation and interpreting is moving away from a hierarchical idea of research and is gradually redefining the role of participants in the creation of knowledge. Theoretical and methodological aspects related to the subjectivity of researchers have acquired greater relevance, which is a step toward abandoning the positivist paradigm that understands objectivity not only as possible but also as the basis of all scientific work. This chapter analyzes how the position of researchers—as they become co-researchers or research-initiators—is reflected upon in academic publications. The goal is to observe how the transition from a positivist to a constructivist paradigm moves along with collaboration practices between the academic and the professional field in the realm of institutional translation and interpreting studies. For this purpose, a corpus of 85 participatory studies in institutional contexts published between 2010 and 2021 in the ten top-ranked journals in translation and interpreting studies was analyzed. The analysis of the research articles unpacks how researchers understand their own subjectivity, and looks at the perceived legitimacy of their research practices. Results highlight that the subjectivity of the researcher themself is hidden in academic outputs. It is suggested that the constructivist paradigm is entering institutional translation and interpreting studies, but that it is not yet settled.
