Situated voices : exploring micropolitical dynamics in Greece’s community interpreting field

Ioannidis, Anastasios (author)

This paper investigates the micropolitical dimensions of community interpreting in Greece, draw-ing on qualitative data from 12 interviews with interpreters, NGO staff, and public servants. The study explores how interpreters navigate role ambiguity, institutional hierarchies, trust dynamics, and emotional labour within interpreter-mediated interactions in migration and public service contexts. The findings highlight the tension between formal expectations of neutrality and the lived relational and affective demands of real-world practice. By foregrounding interpreter agency within institutional and interpersonal constraints, the study contributes to a sociological understanding of interpreting as a power-laden and relational practice embedded in asymmetrical institutional ecologies.

• Language: English
• Keywords: community interpreting, micropolitics, role ambiguity, power dynamics, emotional labour
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 53–77
• Numbering: Vol. 5, issue 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-181228
• UDC: 81'253(495)
• ISSN on article: 2784-5826
• COBISS.SI-ID: 273382147
• Publication date in RUL: 27.03.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Stridon : journal of studies in translation and interpreting
• Publisher: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2784-5826
• COBISS.SI-ID: 68759811

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Pričevanja s terena : Raziskava o mikropolitičnih dinamikah na področju skupnostnega tolmačenja v Grčiji

Abstract

Članek raziskuje mikropolitične razsežnosti skupnostnega tolmačenja v Grčiji na podlagi kvalita-tivnih podatkov, zbranih z dvanajstimi intervjuji s tolmači, zaposlenimi v nevladnih organizaci-jah in javnimi uslužbenci. Študija raziskuje, kako se tolmači spopadajo z dvoumnimi vlogami, in-stitucionalnimi hierarhijami, zaupanjem in čustvenim delom v tolmačenih interakcijah na področ-ju migracij in javnih storitev. Ugotovitve poudarjajo napetost med formalnim pričakovanjem, da je tolmač nevtralen, ter odnosnimi in čustvenimi zahtevami dejanske življenjske prakse. S poudar-janjem tolmačev kot akterjev, ki delujejo v okviru institucionalnih in medosebnih okvirov, študija prispeva k sociološkemu razumevanju tolmačenja kot z močjo obremenjene in odnosne prakse, vpete v asimetrična institucionalna ekološka okolja.

• Keywords: skupnostno tolmačenje, mikropolitika, dvoumnost vlog, razmerja moči, čustveno delo