This article argues for a non-reductive approach to translation as a basic social process that shapes both the world that sociologists study and the sociological endeavour itself. It starts by referring to accounts from the sociology of translation and translation studies, which have problematized simplistic views of processes of cultural globalization. From this point of view, translation can offer an approach to contemporary interconnectedness that escapes from both methodological nationalism and what can be designated as the monolingual vision, providing substantive perspectives on the proliferation of contact zones or borderlands in a diversity of domains. The article centrally argues for a sociological perspective that examines not just the circulation of meaning but translation as a process of linguistic transformation that is necessarily embodied in words. Only if this more material aspect of translation is attended to can the nature of translation as an ordinary social process be fully grasped and its intervention in meaning-making activities explored. This has far-ranging implications for any reflexive account of the production of sociological works and interpretations.

本文主张一种非还原性的翻译方法，作为一种基本的社会过程，它既影响着社会学家研究的世界，也影响着社会学本身。它首先从翻译社会学和翻译研究的叙述开始，这些叙述对文化全球化过程的简单化观点提出了质疑。从这一观点出发，翻译可以为当代的相互联系提供一种方法，既可以避免方法论民族主义，也可以将其称为单语视野，从而为接触领域或边疆在不同领域的扩散提供了实质性的见解。这篇文章集中提出了一种社会学观点，该观点不仅考察意义的传播，还考察翻译作为必然体现在词语中的语言转换过程的过程。只有关注翻译这一更为实质的方面，才能充分理解翻译作为普通社会过程的本质，并探讨其对意义表达活动的干预。这对于社会学作品和解释作品的任何反思性描述都具有深远的意义。