How social network analysis informs translation studies: A systematic review

Abstract

Since the early 2000s when the possibility of a network approach in translation studies (TS) was noted, social network analysis (SNA) has been applied to explore the relational complexity of various translational agents in practical, industrial, academic, and educational settings. Through a systematic review, this paper shows that SNA's major contributions to TS have been mainly in areas of translation history, translation economy, translation scientometrics, translation education, and online collaborative translation. It also identifies how SNA has adapted to and complemented other methodological and theoretical approaches in TS under two paradigms, i.e., explanatory structuralist and exploratory complex paradigms. In light of the review, strengths and weakness of these paradigms are discussed, and suggestions are provided for further research on their confluence, which is characterized by a less reductionist analytic model with appropriate explanatory power in a closer symbiosis between complexity theory and SNA.