This edited collection brings together new research on public service interpreting and translation (PSIT) with a focus on ideology, ethics and policy development. The contributions provide fresh theoretical and empirical perspectives on the inconsistencies in translation and interpreting provision observed in different geonational contexts and the often-reported tensions between prescribed approaches to ethics and practitioner experience. The discussions are set against the backdrop of developments in rights-based discourses on language support services and the professionalisation of the field, drawing attention to how stakeholders and interpreting practitioners navigate the realities of service in the context of shifting ideological landscapes. Particular innovations in the collection include theorisations about policy and practice that draw on political science, applied ethics and paradigms of trauma-informed care. The volume also presents research on settings that have received limited attention to date such as prison and charitable services for survivors of violence and trauma.

Communicating Across Cultures: A Coursebook on Interpreting and Translating in Public Services and Institutions is a manual which addresses the complex task of interpreting and translating through reflection and practice. The book originated from discussions with those who perform the work of an intermediary because they "know" the languages and cultures, and with those who would like to do this type of work, but who may require more training. Thus, it is directed at people who, due to their knowledge of two languages, serve as liaisons between immigrant communities, visitors, or foreigners and the societies that receive them. More precisely, it is directed at future professionals in public service translation and interpreting. Communicating Across Cultures will equip future professionals with the necessary knowledge, skills, and tools to act as linguistic, communicative, and cultural liaisons. It will also help improve the communication between the staff of medical, legal, educational, and administrative institutions and their foreign clients.

At conferences and in the literature on community interpreting there is one burning issue that reappears constantly: the interpreter s role. What are the norms by which the facilitators of communication shape their role? Is there indeed only one role for the community interpreter or are there several? Is community interpreting aimed at facilitating communication, empowering individuals by giving them a voice or, in wider terms, at redressing the power balance in society? In this volume scholars and practitioners from different countries address these questions, offering a representative sample of ongoing research into community interpreting in the Western world, of interest to all who have a stake in this form of interpreting. The opening chapter establishes the wider contextual and theoretical framework for the debate. It is followed by a section dealing with codes and standards and then moves on to explore the interpreter s role in various different settings: courts and police, healthcare, schools, occupational settings and social services.