ABSTRACT
Public service translation is associated with the translation of texts that are “generated by the larger community or by smaller communities in order to ensure communication with all citizens and permit their participation and, therefore, empowerment”. Research on institutional translation carried out to date may be divided into three groups. The first group focuses on the structure and operation of institutions within which the planning, implementation, regulation and evaluation of translation activities take place. The second group of studies focuses on the process and product of translation undertaken in institutions. The third strand of research investigates translators and interpreters working in various institutions and attempts to account for different forms of agency and their impact on the institutional order. Institutional translation is also inevitably bound up with ethical issues. Institutional translators develop multiple allegiances and cultural belongings, and research needs to address the ethical implications of their complex identities and behaviour in “the socially constructed moral spaces inhabit”.
