Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T15:46:09.708Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Translating democracy: how activists in the European Social Forum practice multilingual deliberation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2012

Nicole Doerr
Nicole Doerr*
Affiliation:
Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School, Irvine, CA, USA
*
E-mail: nicole_doerr@hks.harvard.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Linguistic barriers may pose problems for politicians trying to communicate delicate decisions to a European-wide public, as well as for citizens wishing to protest at the European level. In this article I present a counter-intuitive position on the language question, one that explores how grassroots activists in social movements use translation as a novel practice to debate political alternatives in the European Union's (EU) multilingual public sphere. In recent years, new cross-European protest movements have created the multilingual discursive democracy arena known as the European Social Forum (ESF). I compare deliberative practices in the multilingual ESF preparatory meetings with those in monolingual national Social Forum meetings in three Western European countries. My comparison shows that multilingualism does not reduce the inclusivity of democratic deliberation as compared to the national context. In the ESF, grassroots deliberators work using a novel practice of translation that has the potential to include marginalized groups. It is, however, a distinct kind of translation that activists use. Translation, compared to EU-official practices of multilingualism, affects a change in institutionalized habits and norms of deliberation. Addressing democratic theorists, my findings suggest that translation could be a way to think about difference not as a hindrance but as a resource for democracy in linguistically heterogeneous societies and public spaces, without presupposing a shared language or lingua franca, nor a national identity.

Keywords

transnational social movementsdeliberationdiversitytranslationmultilingualismEuropeconflict
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , November 2012 , pp. 361 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © European Consortium for Political Research 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andretta, M.Doerr, N. (2007), ‘Imagining Europe: internal and external non-state actors at the European crossroads’, European Foreign Affairs Review 12(3): 385–400.Google Scholar
Andretta, M.Reiter, H. (2009), ‘Parties, unions and movements. The European left and the ESF’, in D. della Porta (ed.), Another Europe: Conceptions and Practices of Democracy in the European Social Forums, New York: Routledge, pp. 173–203.Google Scholar
Archibugi, D. (2005), ‘The language of democracy: vernacular or Esperanto? A comparison between the multiculturalist and cosmopolitan perspectives’, Political Studies 53: 537–555.Google Scholar
Blackledge, A. (2005), Discourse and Power in a Multilingual World, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.Google Scholar
Boéri, J. (2006), ‘The role of Babels in the ESF in London 2004’, in C. Barker and M. Tyldesley (eds), Conference Papers of the Eleventh International Conference on ‘Alternative Futures and Popular Protest’, Manchester University, April 19–21, 2006, 22pp.Google Scholar
Boéri, J., Hodkinson, S. (2004), ‘Babels and the politics of language at the hearth of Social Forum’, in M. Fuster i Morell and M. Berlinguer (eds), Euromovements Newsletter 1, December 2004. Retrieved 1 January 2007 from http://www.euromovements.info/newsletter/babel.htmGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1982), Ce que parler veut dire – L'Economie des Echanges linguistiques, Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1994), In Other Words: Essays Towards A Reflexive Sociology, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Bozzini, E. (2009), ‘Democracy, participation and communication. The implementation of the communication from the European Commission…’. Paper presented at the EUDO Workshop, 14 March 2009, European University Institute, Florence.Google Scholar
della Porta, D. (2005a), ‘Deliberation in movement: why and how to study deliberative democracy and social movements’, Acta Politica 40(3): 336–350.Google Scholar
della Porta, D. (ed.) (2009), “Introduction” Another Europe: Conceptions and Practices of Democracy in the European Social Forums, New York: Routledge, pp. 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
della Porta, D.Mosca, L. (2007), ‘In movimento: “Contamination” in action and the Italian Global Justice Movement’, Global Networks 7(1): 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
della Porta, D., Andretta, M., Mosca, L.Reiter, H. (2006), Globalisation From Below: Transnational Activists and Protest Networks, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Doerr, N. (2007), ‘Is “another” public space actually possible? Deliberative democracy and the case of “Women Without” ’, Journal of International Women's Studies 8(3): 71–87.Google Scholar
Doerr, N. (2008), ‘Deliberative discussion, language, and efficiency in the world social forum’, Mobilization 13(4): 395–410.Google Scholar
Doerr, N. (2009), ‘Language and democracy in movement’, Social Movement Studies 8(2): 149–165.Google Scholar
Eder, K.Kantner, C. (2002), ‘Interdiskursivität in der europäischen Öffentlichkeit’, Berliner Debatte Initial 13, Europäische Öffentlichkeit: 79–88.Google Scholar
Fraser, N. (1992), ‘Rethinking the public sphere: a contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy’, in C. Calhoun (ed.), Habermas and the Public Sphere, Baskerville: MIT, pp. 109–142.Google Scholar
Fraser, N. (2007), ‘Transnationalizing the public sphere – on the legitimacy and efficiency of public opinion in a post-Westphalian world’, Theory, Culture and Society 24(4): 7–30.Google Scholar
Gal, S.Irvine, J.T. (1995), ‘The boundaries of languages and disciplines: how ideologies shape difference’, Social Research 62: 967–1001.Google Scholar
Gambetta, D. (1998), ‘Claro!’, in J. Elster (ed.), Deliberative Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 107–140.Google Scholar
Gerhards, J. (2000), ‘Europäisierung von Ökonomie und Politik und die Trägheit der Entstehung einer europäischen Öffentlichkeit’, in M. Bach (ed.), Die Europäisierung nationaler Gesellschaften (Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie Sonderband 40). Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag, pp. 299–305.Google Scholar
Gerhards, J. (2010), Mehrsprachigkeit im vereinten Europa. Transnationales sprachliches Kapital als Ressource in einer globalisierten Welt [Multilingualism in an Unified Europe. Transnational Linguistic Capital as a Resource in a Globalised World]. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. (2008), ‘Hat die Demokratie noch eine epistemische Dimension? Empirische Forschung und normative Theorie’, in M. Bach (ed.), Ach, Europa, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, pp. 139–190.Google Scholar
Haeringer, N., Haug, C.Mosca, L. (2009), ‘The ESF organising process in a diachronic perspective’, in D. della Porta (ed.), Another Europe: Conceptions and Practices of Democracy in the European Social Forums, New York: Routledge, pp. 26–45.Google Scholar
Imig, D.R.Tarrow, S.G. (eds) (2001), Contentious Europeans: Protest and Politics in an Emerging Polity, Lanham, MD: Rowman Littlefield.Google Scholar
Kantner, C. (2004), Kein modernes Babel. Kommunikative Voraussetzungen europäischer Öffentlichkeit, Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.Google Scholar
Kavada, A. (2007), The European Social Forum and the Internet: A Case Study of Communication Networks and Collective Action. PhD Dissertation, School of Media, Arts and Design: University of Westminster.Google Scholar
Kraus, P.A. (2004), Europäische Öffentlichkeit und Sprachpolitik: Integration durch Anerkennung, Frankfurt am Main: Campus.Google Scholar
Krzyżanowski, M.Wodak, R. (2010), ‘Hegemonic multilingualism in/of the EU institutions: an inside-outside perspective on the European language policies and practices’, in Mehrsprachigkeit aus der Perspektive zweier EU-Projekte: DYLAN Meets LINEE. Frankfurt: Peter Lang GmbH, pp. 115–135.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, W. (2001), Politics in the Vernacular, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maeckelbergh, M. (2004), ‘Perhaps we should just flip a coin: macro and microstructures of the European social forum processes’, in O. Reyes, H. Wainwright, M. Fuster i Morell and M. Berlinguer (eds), Euromovements Online Newsletter, December 2004. Retrieved 1 October 2008 from http://www.euromovements.info/newsletter/Google Scholar
Maeckelbergh, M. (2009), The Will of the Many: How the Alterglobalisation Movement is Changing the Face of Democracy, London: Pluto.Google Scholar
Manin, B. (1995), Principes du gouvernement representative, Paris: Calmann-Lévy.Google Scholar
Nanz, P. (2006), Europolis. Constitutional Patriotism Beyond the Nation State. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Nanz, P.Steffek, J. (2004), ‘Global governance, participation and the public sphere’, Government and Opposition 39(2): 314–335.Google Scholar
Offe, C. (1998), ‘Demokratie und Wohlfahrtsstaat: Eine europäische Regimeform unter dem Streß der europäischen Integration’, in W. Streeck (ed.), Internationale Wirtschaft, Nationale Demokratie. Herausforderungen für die Demokratietheorie, Frankfurt am Main, New York: Campus Verlag, pp. 99–136.Google Scholar
Parks, L. (2009), ‘In the corridors and on the streets: a comparative study of the impacts of social movement campaigns on the EU’. Thesis defended at the European University Institute.Google Scholar
Pizzorno, A. (2001), ‘Natura della disugualianza, potere politico e potere privato nella società in via di globalizzazione’, Stato e Mercato 62(2): 201–236.Google Scholar
Polletta, F. (2002), Freedom is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social Movements, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Polletta, F. (2006), It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics, Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Risse, T. (2003), ‘Auf dem Weg zu einer europäischen Kommunikationsgemeinschaft: Theoretische Überlegungen und empirische Evidenz’, in C. Franzius and U.K. Preuß (eds), Europäische Öffentlichkeit, Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp. 139–153.Google Scholar
Risse, T. (2010), A Community of Europeans? Transnational Identities and Public Spheres, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Rootes, C., Saunders, C. (2005), ‘Social movements and the rise of the global justice movement in Britain’. Demos Working report, unpublished document. FP6 Research Project Demos (Democracy in Europe and the Mobilization of Society). See http://demos.iue.itGoogle Scholar
Rucht, D., Teune, S.Yang, M. (2007), ‘Moving together: global justice movements in Germany’, in D. della Porta (ed.), The Global Justice Movement – Cross-National and Transnational Perspectives, New York: Paradigm, pp. 157–183.Google Scholar
Statham, P., Trenz, H.-J. (2011), ‘What is left of European democracy? The politicization of the European Union: from constitutional dreams to Euro-Zone nightmares’. Paper presented to the RECON Final Conference, What is Left of European Democracy? November 25–26, ARENA, University of Oslo. Retrieved 1 December 2011 from http://www.reconproject.eu/main.php/StathamTrenz_RECONconcluding_Oslo_25nov11.pdf?fileitem=5374073Google Scholar
Unger, J. (2008), ‘The Scottish language policy gap bottom-up and top-down discursive constructions of Scots’. Lancaster University Working Paper. Retrieved 1 July 2011 from http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/groups/lip/archive.htmGoogle Scholar
Van de Steeg, M. (2006), ‘Does a public sphere exist in the European Union? An analysis of the content of the debate on the Haider case’, European Journal of Political Research 45: 609–634.Google Scholar
Wodak, R. (1996), Disorders of Discourse, London: Longman.Google Scholar
Wodak, R. (2008), ‘ “Communicating Europe”: analyzing, interpreting, and understanding multilingualism and the discursive construction of transnational identities’, in Studies in Greek Linguistics: Language and Society Series 28, Thessaloniki: University of Thessaloniki Press, pp. 57–88.Google Scholar
Wodak, R.Wright, S. (2006), ‘The European Union in cyberspace: democratic participation via online multilingual discussion boards?’, Journal of Language and Politics 5(2): 251–275.Google Scholar
Young, I.M. (1996), ‘Communication and the other: beyond deliberative democracy’, in S. Benhabib (ed.), Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 120–135.Google Scholar
Young, I.M. (2001), ‘Activist challenges to deliberative democracy’, Political Theory 29: 670–690.Google Scholar
Young, I.M. (2002), Inclusion and Democracy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar