Using interpreters in cross-cultural research : challenges experienced in a global south context

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Sambajee, Pratima; (2025) Using interpreters in cross-cultural research : challenges experienced in a global south context. In: Routledge Companion to Cross-Cultural Management. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. (In Press)

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Abstract

Cross-cultural research is more complex when it involves a context of cross-language dimension. Further layers of complexity are added when the context of research is embedded in a political economy characterised by unequal power relations. Existing research has given much attention to the ‘insider’ ‘outsider’ positions and their effect in cross-cultural research. A critical perspective on how these positions evolve in a cross-language situation, is rarely discussed in research methodologies. This chapter focuses on the use of interpreters in cross-cultural studies. It is based on a research study on migrant workers in a global south migration context. The findings present extracts from interviews involving four interpreters, of whom two were from the migrant group and two were from a gatekeeper organisation used to recruit participants. The study highlights how the positionalities of the four interpreters evolve in the process, based on other roles and identities they hold in the field. Importantly, the findings reveal that these positionalities are deeply embedded in different power relations that permeate their relationships with research participants. The chapter calls for the need to reconsider the influence of interpreters in cross-cultural studies where cross-language and power dimensions exist.

ORCID iDs

Sambajee, Pratima ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8867-877X;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)