In commercial contexts, mainstream localization decisions have traditionally targeted markets where a short-term return on investment will offset the localization costs (Exton et al. 2010, 81), whereas, in contexts where social, cultural, or political motivations are more important than the commercial return on investment, localization decisions may instead prioritize the dissemination of information as widely as possible, or specifically to those without access to the knowledge (Ibid; Anastasiou and Schäler 2010). More recently, the term localization has come into use by international aid organizations for their humanitarian practice to refer to the deployment of local resources such as local agents and local response models (Folaron 2019, 204). With such a wide range of contexts in which localization concepts are applied and decisions are made, it seems timely to call for papers examining localization practices around the world across different sectors. This special issue of the Journal of Internationalization and Localization (JIAL) therefore aims to bring into cognisance previously less recognised locale-specific issues, emerging trends or research projects (including publicly funded research programmes and PhD research) as well as types of localization undertaken and localization tools used or under development. We are particularly interested in localization in linguistic, social and cultural contexts from regions that have been under-represented in the journal thus far, such as Africa, Middle East, South and South East Asia, Australasia, Eastern Europe, and South and Central America, encompassing minority and indigenous languages. The suggested topics include, but are not limited to: -Socio-political and ideological issues in localization decision-making -Localization strategies used by different industry groups or humanitarian organizations
-Localization involving minority or indigenous languages
-Emerging trends in shaping localization processes and tools
-Machine learning and AI applications in localization
-Non-professional translation in localization
To help bridge the gap between localization practice and theory representing different regions of the world, we invite both industry professionals and scholars working in academia to submit unpublished, original 6,000-8,000-word articles. Given the quickly changing industry, the special issue will be published expediently, in late 2020, as a double issue: Volume 7, Issues 1 and 2.
Submission deadlines:
Abstracts (500 words): March 15, 2020
Notification to authors: March 31, 2020
Full papers: June 1, 2020
Revised papers due (following peer review): August 15, 2020
Publication: December 2020
Inquiries and abstracts should be addressed to the journal’s co-editors: Minako O’Hagan (University of Auckland, New Zealand) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Julie McDonough Dolmaya (York University, Canada) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
References:
Anastasiou, Dimitra, and Reinhard Schäler. n.d. “Translating Vital Information: Localisation, Internationalisation, Globalisation.” Syn-Thèses 3: 11–25. Exton,
Chris, Asanka Wasala, Jim Buckley, and Reinhard Schäler. 2010. “Micro Crowdsourcing: A New Model for Software Localization.” Localisation Focus 8 (1): 81–89.
Folaron, Debbie. 2019. “Technology, Technical Translation and Localization” in O’Hagan, M (ed) The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 203-219
