Crisis translation: considering language needs in multilingual disaster settings
Disaster Prevention and Management
ISSN: 0965-3562
Article publication date: 3 September 2019
Issue publication date: 11 March 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role that language translation can play in disaster prevention and management and to make the case for increased attention to language translation in crisis communication.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on literature relating to disaster management to suggest that translation is a perennial issue in crisis communication.
Findings
Although communication with multicultural and multilinguistic communities is seen as being in urgent need of attention, the authors find that the role of translation in enabling this is underestimated, if not unrecognized.
Originality/value
This paper raises awareness of the need for urgent attention to be given by scholars and practitioners to the role of translation in crisis communication.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The collaboration that led the authors to write this paper was initiated by the INTERACT Crisis Translation Network project. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 734211.
Citation
O’Brien, S. and Federici, F.M. (2020), "Crisis translation: considering language needs in multilingual disaster settings", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 129-143. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPM-11-2018-0373
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited