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Social Studies of Science, Vol. 37, No. 4, 561-584 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0306312706070738

The Language Barrier as an Aid to Communication

Rodrigo Ribeiro

Cardiff University School of Social Sciences, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3WT, UK, RibeiroR{at}Cardiff.ac.uk, From October 2007: Rua Engenheiro Senna Freire 612, Belo Horizonte, CEP: 30360-660, Minas Gerais, Brazil, RibeiroR{at}dep.ufmg.br

The communication between distinct social worlds or forms of life is a central topic in the sociology of knowledge. How do different communities interact with each other? Based on a sociological analysis of the work of Japanese—Portuguese interpreters in the Brazilian steel industry, I argue that the `language barrier', which is normally thought as a problem, can aid communication by preventing people who hold potentially clashing concepts, beliefs and customs from directly confronting each other. The importance for such people of not understanding each other is revealed in the work of interpreters, who facilitate the interaction between representatives of different steel companies and support the transfer of technology from Japan to Brazil. They maintain cordial relationships by acting as `buffers' between the Japanese and Brazilian forms of life. Three `models of mediation' are discussed in a comparison of the Japanese—Portuguese interpreters with other cases of interaction.

Key Words: boundary objects • cross-cultural communication • technology transfer • trading zones


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