Translating Institutional Systems (TRAILS)

TRAILS explores intersections between institutional practices, workplace communication, social interaction, technology use and cognition in institutional translation work. With a perspective on cognition in real-life settings as culturally constituted and emergent through actors' situated interactions, TRAILS maps processes such as problem solving, decision making and remembering by recording and analyzing naturally occurring interactions in translation teams.

Background

The nature of cognition in real-life work settings has attracted the interest of scholars from different academic disciplines in the last decades. However, despite its potential to produce considerable insight into the nature of cognition in large-scale organisations, translation work in institutional settings has so far not been studied to a large degree from socio-cognitive viewpoints.

By studying interactions within institutional translation teams working in a complex and evolving technological landscape, TRAILS will develop current understandings of translatorial cognition in the contemporary workplace.

Goal

TRAILS will explore and model distributed cognitive processes by investigating social interaction and human-technology interaction in institutional translation settings, thus pushing the boundaries of current conceptualizations of distributed cognition in institutions.

The research objectives for TRAILS are pursued through the interdisciplinary integration of theoretical insights and methodologies from cognitive science, linguistics, anthropology, and translation studies. Specifically, TRAILS combines ethnographic fieldwork with micro-ethnographic multi-modal interaction analysis to gather data on team interactions, primarily by means of video recordings.

Impact

The study will result in the development of a theoretical model of distributed cognition in institutional translation settings that will inform future research into socio-cognitive aspects of cognition, interaction, and cross-linguistic communication.

Funding

Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Coordinating organisation

Tampere University

People

Raphael Sannholm

Marie Curie Research Fellow

Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences

Tampere University

raphael.sannholm [at] tuni.fi (raphael[dot]sannholm[at]tuni[dot]fi)

+358504649302

City Centre Campus

https://orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8778-2628

Contact persons

Raphael Sannholm

About me

I am a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Faculty for Information Technology and Communication Sciences at Tampere University. I hold a BA in English Linguistics an MA in Translation Studies, and a PhD in Translation Studies.

Positioned in the field of Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies (CTIS), my postdoctoral research uses cognitive ethnography and interaction analysis to study translatorial cognition as culturally and socially situated (inter)actions in professional translation workplace settings. Using an interdisciplinary approach, my research integrates methods and theoretical insights from CTIS, cognitive science, anthropology, and linguistics.

My scholarly interests include methodological aspects of investigations of cognition and communication in workplace settings, multimodal aspects of workplace interaction, workplace discourse, and the use of technology.

I am a member of the research groups HuMuLaDisCo (Human and Machine in Multimodality, Language, Distributed Cognition and Communication), Changing Translatorial Landscapes, and SPRINT (Stockholm Process Research in Translation and Interpreting).

Publications

Sannholm, Raphael, Laura Babcock, and Elisabet Tiselius. 2025. “Mapping Synergies in Cognitive Research on Multilectal Mediated Communication.” Target 37 (2): 151–158.

Sannholm, Raphael. 2025. “Co-Constructing Cognitive Artifacts in the Translation Workplace”. In Field Research in Translation and Interpreting, ed. by Regina Rogl, Daniela Schlager and Hanna Risku, 200–225. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Sannholm, Raphael, and Hanna Risku. 2024. “Situated Minds and Distributed Systems in Translation. Exploring the Conceptual and Empirical Implications.” Target 36 (2): 159–183.

Tiselius, Elisabet, Raphael Sannholm, and Laura Babcock. 2022. “Innovative approaches to study Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies”. Translation, Cognition & Behavior 5 (2), 216–220.

Sannholm, Raphael. 2021. “Translation, Teamwork, and Technology. The Use of Social and Material Scaffolds in the Translation Process”. PhD diss., Stockholm University.

Translating Institutional Systems (TRAILS)

I forskningsprojektet Translating Institutional Systems (TRAILS) undersöks interaktion, arbetsplatskommunikation och samarbete i institutionellt översättningsarbete – detta i syfte att skapa ny kunskap om översättares interaktion och teknikanvändning i institutionella sammanhang. Projektet är finansierat av EU-kommissionen via Horizon Europe/Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA).

Huvudman för projektet är Tammerfors universitet, där det finns stor erfarenhet av forskning om institutionellt översättningsarbete. Detta inte minst tack vare professor Kaisa Koskinens forskning.

TRAILS tar formen av en arbetsplatsstudie där materialinsamlingen huvudsakligen sker genom videoinspelning av naturligt förekommande interaktion mellan översättare. Inspelningarna analyseras med ett fokus på multimodala aspekter av interaktionen på arbetsplatsen, inklusive översättarnas användning av tekniska hjälpmedel. Multimodal interaktionsanalys av videodata gör det möjligt att på en mycket finkornig nivå studera hur beslut, lösningar på problem o.s.v. växer fram i faktiska samtal. Metoden är beprövad och etablerad inom många olika forskningsfält där man intresserar sig för mänsklig interaktion och människors teknikanvändning.

Ansatsen är etnografisk och frågor som ligger till grund för projektet rör till exempel hur översättare i institutionella sammanhang löser problem gemensamt, hur gemensamma ramar och riktlinjer skapas, hur kollegor och verktyg fungerar som minnes- och problemlösningsresurser samt hur de institutionella ramarna spelar in i arbetet.

Projektet har genomgått etikprövning i Finland och fått etiskt godkännande.

Translating Institutional Systems (TRAILS)

Background

Goal

Impact

Funding

Coordinating organisation

People

Raphael Sannholm

Contact persons

About me

Publications

Translating Institutional Systems (TRAILS)

Plenary talk

Plenary talk at International Conference on Translation and Interpreting Process Studies: Multimodality, Cognition and Application

Give feedback on our website!