Bright and blind spots of water research in Latin America and the Caribbean

Water resources management in Latin America and the Caribbean is particularly threatened by climatic, economic, and political pressures. To assess the region's ability to manage water resources, we conducted an unprecedented literature review of over 20 000 multilingual research articles using machine learning and an understanding of the socio-hydrologic landscape. Results reveal that the region's vulnerability to water-related stresses, and drivers such as climate change, is compounded by research blind spots in niche topics (reservoirs and risk assessment) and subregions (Caribbean nations), as well as by its reliance on an individual country (Brazil). A regional bright spot, Brazil, produces well-rounded water-related research, but its regional dominance suggests that funding cuts there would impede scientifically informed water management in the entire region.

FAIR and open multilingual clinical trials in Wikidata and Wikipedia

This project seeks to conduct language translation on metadata labels for research publications, attribution data, and clinical trials information to make data about medical research queriable in underserved languages through Wikidata and the Linked Open Web. This project has the benefit of distributing content through Wikipedia and Wikidata, which already have an annual userbase of a billion users and which already have established actionable standards to practice diversity, inclusion, openness, FAIRness, and transparency about program development. The impact will be localized access to basic research information in various Global South languages to integrate with existing community efforts for establishing the same. Although Wikidata development in this direction seems inevitable, the cultural and social exchange required to establish global multilingual research partnerships could begin now with support rather than later as a second phase effort for including the developing world. Wikipedia and Wikidata are established forums with an existing active userbase for multilingual research collaboration, but the research practices there still are immature. By applying metadata expertise through this project, we will elevate the current amateur development with more stable Linked Open Data compatibility to English language databases. Using the wiki distribution and discussion platform to develop the global conversation about data sharing will set good precedents for the trend of global research collaboration.

Bright and Blind Spots of Water Research in Latin America and the Caribbean

Water resources management is threatened by climatic, economic, and political pressures, and these challenges are on particular display in Latin America and the Caribbean. To assess the region's ability to manage water resources, we conducted an unprecedented literature review of over 20,000 multilingual research articles using machine learning and an understanding of the socio-hydrologic landscape. Results reveal that the region's vulnerability to water-related stresses, and drivers such as climate change, is compounded by research blind spots in niche topics (reservoirs and risk assessment) and sub-regions (Caribbean nations), and by its reliance on an individual country (Brazil). A regional bright spot, Brazil produces well-rounded water-related research but its regional dominance suggests that funding cuts there would impede scientifically-informed water management in the entire region.

Sesgos, efectos e implicaciones sociolingüísticas en la aplicación de la técnica de entrevista: la entrevista lingüísticamente minorizadora

Desde finales del siglo XX, sobre todo en el mundo anglófono, se ha reflexionado y analizado cómo el imperialismo lingüístico y las políticas lingüísticas monolingüistas afectan a ciertas prácticas metodológicas en el contexto del contacto de lenguas. A este respecto, la técnica de la entrevista merece una atención especial, ya que en ocasiones en la elección de la lengua de entrevista se prima una determinada lengua, más por preferencias y prejuicios lingüísticos del investigador-entrevistador que por una verdadera ventaja metodológica. En este artículo se presenta una revisión sobre los acercamientos teóricos entre las diferentes disciplinas e interdisciplinas que han abordado esta cuestión en la investigación social y su postura ante la necesidad y ventajas de incorporar la dimensión sociolingüística al diseño, traducción y aplicación de la entrevista. Así se establece, tomando de referente a la Comunidad Hispánica en un contexto glocal, cómo la omisión o reconocimiento de esta dimensión puede estar afectando a la investigación -en concreto la recogida de información mediante entrevista- y a las comunidades de habla investigadas en contextos multilingües en cuanto sujetos objeto de marginación y discriminación lingüística. Igualmente, se reflexiona sobre como los efectos de los nacionalismos lingüísticos monolingüistas han propiciado prejuicios y hábitos que generan condiciones para que la entrevista como técnica de recolección de información se convierta en un medio de minorización lingüística y el investigador-entrevistador en un agente lingüístico que reproduce actitudes e ideologías lingüicidas. De este modo, tanto la toma de conciencia y de responsabilidad de las implicaciones sociolingüísticas que nuestros trabajos de campo puedan tener dentro de un determinado contexto multilingüe, desde lo que supone planear, diseñar, adaptar, traducir y aplicar una entrevista, es lo que puede propiciar que los investigadores-entrevistadores mejoren la validez y calidad de las investigaciones interculturales y multilingües, y, al reflexionar sobre su papel como agente lingüístico en situaciones de conflicto y discriminación lingüística, también contribuyan a la sostenibilidad lingüística y epistémica, evitando el uso de entrevistas lingüísticamente minorizadoras (ELM).Since the end of the 20th century, especially in the Anglophone world, the scientific community has reflected how linguistic imperialism and monolinguistic language policies affect some methodological practices in a context of language contact. In this regard, the interview technique deserves special attention because of the choice of interview language often give preference to a certain language more by linguistic prejudices of researcher-interviewer than by a true methodological advantage. This article presents a review of the theoretical approaches in several disciplines and interdisciplines that have discussed this issue in social research in social research, and also their position regarding the need and advantages of incorporating the sociolinguistic dimension to the design, translation, and application of the interview. Thus, if we take reference to the Hispanic Community in a glocal context, we see how the omission or recognition of this dimension may be affecting the research, in particular the collection of information by interviewing, and also the speech communities in multilingual contexts as subjects subject to linguistic marginalization and discrimination. Likewise, it reflects on how the effects of monolingual linguistic nationalism have promoted prejudices and habits that generate conditions so that the interview as an information gathering technique becomes a means of linguistic minoritization. For the same reason, the researcher-interviewer becomes a linguistic agent that reproduces linguicide linguistic attitudes and ideologies. In this way, both the awareness and responsibility of the sociolinguistic implications that our field work (the interview planning, design, adaptation, translation, and application) may have within a given multilingual context, is what can encourage researchers-interviewers to improve the validity and quality of intercultural and multilingual research. Also, it contributes to linguistic and epistemic sustainability when the researcher-interviewer reflects on their role as a linguistic agent in situations of conflict and linguistic discrimination, avoiding the use of linguistically minoritizing interviews (LMI).

Englishization and the politics of translation

Purpose This study aims to investigate the treatment of translation within the international business and management (IBM) literature to highlight colonialist assumptions inscribed in this treatment as a result of the hegemonic status of English. Design/methodology/approach This investigation takes the form of a systemic literature review to examine the treatment of translation in the IBM literature through a postcolonial lens. Findings The findings demonstrate that despite growing interest in language in international business, matters of translation have received comparatively little attention. However, those articles that do address translation matters tend to do so in five key ways, including epistemological/methodological considerations, exploring translator agency, the investigations of the discursive void/conceptual fuzziness between languages, and approaches that discuss translation as social practice. Research limitations/implications Despite the authors’ critique of English-language hegemony, this literature review is restricted to English-language journals, which the authors acknowledge as problematic and discuss within the article. Practical implications In exposing the limited treatment of translation within the literature, the authors provide a call to action for IBM scholars to be more explicit in their treatment of translation to ensure representation of cultural and linguistic Others, rather than providing domesticated accounts of multilingual research. Originality/value Although there have been other articles that have examined translation in the past, this paper is the first to do so through a postcolonial lens, demonstrating from a linguistic perspective the colonialist assumptions that are still prevalent in IBM knowledge production, as evidenced by the treatment of translation in the field.

Conclusion

The concluding chapter draws together the book’s key themes, focusing on the various prisms – Celtic, Breton, English, sublime, Romantic, industrial, modern, touristic, colonial – through which Wales has been viewed. These distorting prisms are shown always to reflect the home culture, whether it be France’s need to reconnect with her Celtic ancestry following the trauma of Revolution, or the German-speaking lands’ anxieties about their own slow democratic and industrial advance. The importance of Wales as a haven constitutes a significant trope in Continental travel writing from the French Revolution and 1848, to the First World War, which brought thousands of Belgians to Wales, the Spanish civil war, and Nazi-occupied Europe. Over the centuries Wales is discovered, lost and rediscovered, shifting in and out of view, from blind spot to blank canvas. It is only really in the twentieth century that Wales is treated on its own terms in travel writing, beginning with the French narratives of the 1904-05 religious revival. The book ends by stressing the value of travel writing and multilingual research as a means to interrogate centre-periphery and, importantly periphery-periphery relations.

The role of crosslinguistic influence in multilingual processing: Lexicon versus syntax

Multilingual research could offer a unique perspective on how the languages already acquired by a person affect the online processing of a new language. But it is currently difficult to assess this issue because theoretical accounts of multilingualism have focused on acquisition rather than processing and most empirical research to date has gathered untimed (offline) evidence. To help bridge this gap, we formulate hypotheses that can help derive processing predictions from existing accounts of multilingualism. But crucially, and based on previous findings in second language processing, we identify ways in which assumptions about crosslinguistic influence may need to be revised to allow the separate treatment of lexical and syntactic processing, and to consider the role of variables such as language dominance and proficiency. In our view, the question of what’s special about multilingualism is worth studying, but more research is needed before we can begin answering it.

Multilingual Research: Reflections on Translating Qualitative Data

The objective of this article is to examine translation dilemmas in cross-cultural qualitative research projects. In particular, I reflect on my experiences of conducting cross-language qualitative research and I examine how the translation techniques I have employed over the years shape the collection and interpretation of non-English to English qualitative data. Centred on the question ‘What aspects of participants’ representation are lost or foreclosed in this act, process and outcome of translating and how can this be mitigated?’, I discuss how the following coalesce to inform how this complex and multidimensional question is addressed: (i) the competencies, processes and outcomes of translating, (ii) the importance of situating data in its social context and (iii) how this shapes the representation of data. As well, this article discusses the implication of cross-cultural and cross-language studies on social work and presents three lessons learned from my experiences.