Conceptualising Linguistic and Cultural Mediation

Abstract

This editorial discusses some issues associated with the definition of ‘language and culture mediation’, in order to contextualise the reflections found in this special issue. This expression, rather controversial in some countries, is often used to describe activities of assistance to foreigners, mainly migrants, similar to or coinciding with public service interpreting. A component of mediation is also recognised in the translator’s profession as s/he mediates between the source text and the final readers, and between the relevant cultures. But language and culture mediation can be interpreted more broadly, to refer also to situations of cultural contact involving a process of culture learning and synthesis. In this interpretation, rather than specific professional profiles, it designates various activities and situations involving mediation between cultures, e.g. in tourism communication, or in the promotion of culturally relevant products for export. Hence, it is argued that many problems surrounding the denomination ‘language and culture mediation’ are due to its use in specific contexts, while, if used as a superordinate, this expression can embrace various actions, activities and professional profiles having the common property of granting mutual accessibility to languages and cultures.