ABSTRACT
This chapter looks into the current processes of globalization and their social, political, economic and linguistic consequences on contemporary life, institutions and the workplace. It discusses the role of the English language in its function as a global lingua franca and the way English might affect the nature, frequency and indeed further existence of translation worldwide. Globalization and translation are closely intertwined: linguistic superdiversity across the globe is part of globalization and of the growing necessity to translate. And in order to investigate what globalization does to discourse, it is necessary to examine how language functions in different societies, and discourse needs to be broken down in richly contextualized forms that occur in society. Eco-translatology looks at the phenomenon of translation as a very broadly conceived eco-system in which the ideas of 'translation as adaptation and selection', of translation as a 'textual transplant' promoting an 'eco-balance' are integrated into an all-encompassing vision.
