Travelling concepts in translation studies and beyond

Travelling concepts have always been vital to, and welcomed by, translation studies. In fact, they have enabled the discipline’s formation. However, even though travelling concepts such as role, culture, and norms are of vital importance to translation studies, conceptual engagement has, paradoxically, not really been put centre-stage in the discipline. This introductory paper will delineate the (historical) reasons for this status quo, explain why increased engagement with concepts is important for translation studies, and highlight the various ways in which deepened conceptual engagement will benefit the discipline. This paper thus provides a framework for, and an introduction to, a total of five papers that all explore either travelling concepts that made their way into translation studies, or translation as a travelling concept in neighbouring disciplines or fields of research. All of the contributions underline the need to engage seriously with concepts and to undertake the demanding task of engaging with the disciplines that regard a given concept as foundational. The papers assembled in this special issue show the benefits of such conceptual heavy work, or, conversely, the detrimental effects that a lack of serious engagement with concepts can have for translation studies and beyond. Thus, this introduction also doubles as a manifesto for foregrounding the concepts we use and treating them as objects of research in their own right.