Negotiating the Terminological Borders of ‘Language Mediation’ in English and Italian. A Discussion on the Repercussions of Terminology on the Practice, Self-perception and Role of Language Mediators in Italy

Linguistic and cultural mediation has been playing an increasingly important role in contemporary society as a result of the intensification of international exchanges and migration flows; however, the definitions that have been given of it are still rather vague and inconsistent. In some cases linguistic and cultural mediation is seen as a broad superordinate category, comprising a range of different interlinguistic and intercultural activities serving the purpose of facilitating communication across languages, cultures and societies in various areas of civil society: industry, business, trade, law, literature, academia, institutions, public services, etc. In other cases, instead, the definition given is more restrictive, limiting the scope of linguistic and cultural mediation to some activities aimed at assisting or supporting foreigners, and in particular migrants, in institutional contexts - e.g. public service and community interpreting in social, legal and medical contexts, and more generally in contexts involving the provision of public services - thus giving rise to a professional profile between interpreter and social worker. Obviously both conceptions are based on a series of traits that are common to all the activities falling under each of the two definitions outlined above. Such traits can be described comparatively only by having recourse to tools derived from various disciplines, such as translation and interpreting studies, linguistics, cultural and literary studies, sociology, geography, anthropology, history, law. This special issue of the Journal has a twofold objective: to outline the distinctive traits that make linguistic and cultural mediation recognisable in spite of its transversal character, also through the discussion of case studies; and to identify the potential contribution the various disciplines involved may give to scientific research on mediation, also in terms of methodological tools.