Translation as a knowledge transformation practice—the ambiguous case of presenting Finnish child welfare in English

Abstract

This article addresses the process of translation, necessary in the present social work academic and practice communities, as a form of transformation of knowledge. It is argued that knowledge is transformed in the translation process on the terms set by the language into which it is translated. As the English language is the lingua franca of the present academic and other international communities, it is the English language that sets the criteria for translation. In social work, which is conventionally seen as context-bound, the translation process includes some loss of the original particularities. The Finnish child welfare system is used as an example. It is demonstrated how complicated, if not even absurd, the translations may be. The English terms, related to a different child welfare ideology and history, do not meet the essence of the Finnish welfare-focused child welfare system. Instead of fluent translation, robust translations are suggested as the way forward. The robust, foreign-sounding translations would recognise the context-bound particularities. Yet, the challenge is how to find a communicative balance between fluent and robust translation.