Thesis (M.A.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English

Inspired by the potentials of social networking, media convergence and ubiquitous computing that are radically reshaping our contemporary world, collaborative non-profit translation activities carried out by volunteer translators have become so significant that they have recently urged translation scholars to call for re-examining our conventional thoughts about translation and translators, and studying the potentials this new realm offers in terms of knowledge production. As engaged citizens concerned with scientific knowledge and aware of its limited dissemination among Arab lay readers in their mother tongue, a growing number of Arab volunteer translators have been forming online collectives during the last decade with the aim of translating popular science articles into Arabic. As self-organized networks, whose construction is facilitated by new advances in media and technology, such collectives enjoy the freedom to innovate and interfere in the texts thanks to the absence of any imposed professional guidelines, hierarchical structures, or capitalistic pressures. On the other hand, the same media and technological advances have evidently reinforced the primacy of English as a lingua franca, which is argued to drive translators to drift towards the dominating Anglophone norms of writing, especially in scientific discourse. Focusing on popular science, this study explores the role played by supposedly free-willed volunteer translators in manipulating the writer{u2019}s epistemic stance to the propositions s/he makes as reflected in the use of hedges, and hence the knowledge transferred, through optional shifts. Adopting a sociological approach to both volunteer translation and scientific knowledge production

Issued also as CD