Against the Gist

The Trap of 'Flow'

In the commercial translation industry, the highest compliment is usually that a text 'flows naturally'. While readability is essential, a preoccupation with stylistic smoothness can be a technology of erasure. When dealing with the complex architecture of the Social Economy – whether 19th-century mutualist philosophy or 21st-century cooperative law – 'flowing naturally' often means smoothing over the very resistance that makes the text valuable.

My Approach: Skopos and Structural Fidelity

My methodology is informed by the analytical rigour I developed during a decade as a corporate finance researcher. This background ensures that I understand the Skopos – the strategic purpose – of your document.

I balance this functionalism with 'Thick Translation' (Kwame Anthony Appiah). I resist 'domesticating' a text to the point that its specificities vanish. Instead, I strike a balance between preserving the author's unique voice and using scholarly footnotes to explain culture-specific references that would otherwise be lost to 'the gist'.

The Anthropology of the Text

To understand why this precision matters, I refer to Laurent Barry’s 'Terminological Logics'.

Barry argues that names in a kinship system are not just labels; they are codes of duty. Just as kinship terms define who owes what to whom in a family, legal structures (Co-ops, B-Corps, Charities) define the web of duties in an economic entity.

If we mistranslate these terms – collapsing distinct concepts into a 'rough equivalent' for the sake of flow – we essentially rewrite the social contract. 'Misclassifying' a gig worker as an independent contractor, for example, is not a linguistic stylistic choice; it is a structural shift with massive social consequences.

From Theory to Tool

This theoretical stance is practical, not just academic. It is the logic behind my Social Economy Glossary, a living database designed to prevent standard corporate concepts from colonising mutualist spaces.

By resisting the 'surface lure' of direct translation, I ensure that the technical payload of your work – whether it is a statute, a manifesto, or a financial report – arrives intact.