Translation and infrastructure: concepts and applications

Engagement with infrastructural thinking, prominent in the humanities, social sciences, and science and technology, has received little attention in translation studies. This article argues that translation is surrounded by, embedded in, and inextricably bound to infrastructures and highlights the benefits of exploring the conceptual and analytical affordances of infrastructural thinking in relation to translation. The authors demonstrate how an infrastructural perspective can serve as a rubric for conceptualizing translation, and define key infrastructural characteristics and their influence on translation’s procedural and ontological dimensions. Applying this lens to three case studies, the article uncovers implicit infrastructural issues related to translation and argues that adopting infrastructural thinking can enrich our understanding of translation as an emergent, multifaceted practice, encouraging interdisciplinary dialogue and methodological innovation. Moreover, recognizing translation as an infrastructure itself enhances insights into its role as a communication facilitator (or constraint) in today’s interconnected world.