This book aims to provide a philosophical underpinning to translation and relate translation to development. The second aim flows from the first section’s argument that societies emerge out of, amongst others, complex translational interactions amongst individuals. It will do so by conceptualising translation from a complexity and emergence point of view and relating this view on emergent semiotics to some of the most recent social research. It will further fulfill its aims by providing empirical data from the South African context concerning the relationship between translation and development. The book intends to be interdisciplinary in nature and to foster interdisciplinary research and dialogue by relating the newest trends in translation theory, i.e. agency theory in the sociology of translation, to development theory within sociology. Data in the volume will be drawn from fields that have received very little if any attention in translation studies, i.e. local economic development, the knowledge economy and the informal economy.

本书旨在为翻译提供一个哲学基础，并将翻译与发展联系起来。第二个目的来自于第一部分的论点，即社会是由个人之间复杂的翻译互动等因素产生的。它将通过从复杂性和涌现的角度对翻译进行概念化，并将这种关于涌现的符号学的观点与一些最新的社会研究联系起来。它将通过提供南非背景下有关翻译和发展之间关系的经验数据来进一步实现其目标。本书旨在通过将翻译理论的最新趋势，即翻译社会学中的代理理论，与社会学中的发展理论联系起来，实现跨学科性质，促进跨学科研究和对话。本书中的数据将来自翻译研究中很少受到关注的领域，即地方经济发展、知识经济和非正规经济。