Ecologies of translation
Walking in the steps of Barbara Czarniawska
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19245/25.05.pij.31.03.26.2Keywords:
Barbara Czarniawska, Ecologies of translation, embedded actors, translation spaces, bundles of ideasAbstract
Barbara Czarniawska’s work on translation has nurtured several lines of organization research, inspired generations of researchers and continues to provoke us to do fieldwork and to carefully reflect upon conceptual frameworks to make sense of what we see. In this paper we first depict various ways in which translation studies have evolved. We then pick up the very idea of bundles of ideas, that we find to be repeatedly emphasized by Czarniawska in describing processes of idea circulation and also being such an important feature of the translation framework as such. We suggest an ecological approach to translations to put to the fore the interplay among ideas as well as between ideas, actors and spaces. With the conceptualization of ecologies of translation, we thus bring forward three important aspects of the translation framework as developed and used by Barbara Czarniawska - the focus on bundles of ideas, the understanding that circulation of ideas is characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity, and a notion of actors as embedded and changing – and we open venues for continued research to develop the understanding of these aspects of translation.References
Abbott, A. (1988) The System of Professions. Chicago: University of Chicago press.
Abbott, A. (2005) “Linked ecologies: States and universities as environments for professions” Sociological Theory, 23(3), 245–274. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0735-2751.2005.00253.x
Abrahamson, E. (1996) “Technical and aesthetic fashion”, in Translating organizational change, Czarniawska, B., Sevón, G. (eds.), pp. 117–138. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Andersen, H., Røvik, K. A. (2015) “Lost in translation: A case-study of the travel of lean thinking in a hospital”, BMC Health Services Research, 15(1), 401-401.
Ansari, S., Fiss, P., Zajac, E. (2010) “Made to Fit: How practices vary as they diffuse.”, The Academy of Management Review, 35(1), 67–92. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.35.1.zok67
Boxenbaum, E. (2006) “Lost in translation? The making of Danish diversity management” American Behavioral Scientist, 49, 939–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764205285173
Boxenbaum, E., Battilana, J. (2005) “Importation as innovation: Transposing managerial practices across fields”, Strategic Organization, 3(4), 355-383. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127005058996
Boxenbaum, E., Strandgaard Pedersen, J. (2009) “Scandinavian institutionalism: A case of institutional work”, In Institutional Work: Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organization, Lawrence, T. B., Suddaby, R., Leca, B. (Eds), pp. 178–204. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Brown, S. (2002) “Michel Serres: Science, translation, and the logic of the parasite”, Theory, Culture & Society, 19 (3): 1 – 28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276402019003001
Brunsson, N., Sahlin-Andersson, K. (2000) “Constructing organizations: the example of public sector reform”, Organization Studies, 21(4): 721–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840600214003
Byrkjeflot, H., Svejenova, S., (2024) “Renewing powerful ideas. The Nordic model as an ‘ecology of circulation’.” in An ecology of ideas permeating science, higher education, and society, Arora-Jonsson, S., Blomgren, M., Pallas, J., Wedlin, L. pp. 225-242. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Christensen, T., Laegreid, P., (2024) “Academic freedom and freedom of speech. Translating travelling ideas” in An ecology of ideas permeating science, higher education, and society, Arora-Jonsson, S., Blomgren, M., Pallas, J., Wedlin, L. pp. 91-108. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Czarniawska, B. (1998) A narrative approach in organization studies. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Czarniawska, B. (2002) A tale of three cities, or the glocalization of city management. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Czarniawska, B. (2004) Narratives in Social Science Research (1st ed.). SAGE Publications, Limited.
Czarniawska, B. (2009) ”Emerging Institutions: Pyramids or Anthills?” Organization Studies, 30(4), 423–441. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840609102282
Czarniawska, B. (2012) Cyberfactories: How news agencies produce news. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Czarniawska, B. (2017) ”On Time, Space, and Action Nets.” Organization, 11(6), 773–791.
Czarniawska, B. (2010) “Translation impossible? Accounting for a city project”, Accounting, Auditing, & Accountability, 23(3), 420-437. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513571011034361
Czarniawska, B., Joerges, B. (1995) “Winds of organizational change. How ideas translate into objects and actions”. Research in the sociology of organizations, S. Bacharach, P. Gagliardi, B. Bryan (eds.), 13, 171–209.
Czarniawska, B., Sevón, G. (eds.). (1996a) Translating Organizational Change, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Czarniawska, B., Sevón, G. (1996b) “Introduction” In Translating organizational change. B. Czarniawska, G. Sevón (eds.), pp. 1–12. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Czarniawska, B., Sevón, G. (eds). (2005a) Global ideas: how ideas, objects and practices travel in the global economy. Lund: Liber and Copenhagen Business School Press.
Czarniawska, B., Sevón, G. (2005b) “Translation is a vehicle, imitation its motor, and fashion sits at the wheel”, In Global ideas: how ideas, objects and practices travel in the global economy , Czarniawska, B., Sevón, G., pp. 7-12. Lund: Liber and Copenhagen Business School Press.
Djelic, M., Quack, S. (2010) Transnational communities: Shaping global economic governance. Cambridge University Press.
Djelic, M-L., Sahlin-Andersson, K. (2006) “Introduction: A world of governance. The rise of transnational regulation”. In Transnational governance. Institutional dynamics of regulation, M.-L. Djelic, K. Sahlin-Andersson (eds), pp. 1–28. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Drori G., Höllerer M., Walgenbach P. (2014) Global themes and local variations in organization and management: Perspectives on glocalization (1st ed.). London/New York: Routledge.
Elvbakken, K., Hansen, H. F. (2019) “Evidence producing organizations: Organizational translation of travelling evaluation ideas”. Evaluation, 25(3), 261-276.
Engwall, L., Wedlin, L. (2019) “Business Studies and Management Ideas”. In Oxford Handbook of Management Ideas. Strang, D., Sturdy, A., Reay, T., Heusinkveld, S. (eds.), pp. 159-176. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198794219.013.14
Erçek, M., Say, A. İ. (2008) “Discursive ambiguity, professional networks, and peripheral contexts: The translation of total quality management in turkey, 1991-2002”. International Studies of Management & Organization, 38(4), 78-99.
Frenkel, M. (2005) ”The Politics of Translation: How State-Level Political Relations Affect the Cross-National Travel of Management Ideas”, Organization (London, England), 12(2), 275–301. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508405051191
Gill, M., McGivern, G., Sturdy, A., Pereira, S., Gill, D., Dopson, S., (2020) “Negotiating Imitation: Examining the Interactions of Consultants and Clients to Understand Institutionalization as Translation”, British Journal of Management, 31(3): 470-486. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12372
Gondo, M., Amis, J. (2013) “Variations in practice adoption: the roles of conscious reflection and discourse.” The Academy of Management Review, 38(2), 229–247. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2010.0312
Hallett, T., Ventresca, M. (2006) “Inhabited institutions: Social interactions and organizational forms in Gouldner's "patterns of industrial bureaucracy"”. Theory and Society, 35(2), 213-236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-006-9003-z
Hannan, M. T. (2005) “Ecologies of organizations: Diversity and identity”. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(1), 51-70. https://doi.org/10.1257/0895330053147985
Hannan, M. T., J. Freeman. (1977) “The Population Ecology of Organizations.” American Journal of Sociology, 82:929- 964. https://doi.org/10.1086/226424
Heinze, K. L., Soderstrom, S., Heinze, J. E. (2016) “Translating institutional change to local communities: The role of linking organizations”. Organization Studies, 37(8), 1141-1169. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840615622068
Helin, S., Sandström, J. (2010) “Resisting a corporate code of ethics and the reinforcement of management control.” Organization Studies, 31(5), 583-604. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840610372292
Heusinkveld, H. S., Benders, J., Hillebrand, B. (2013) “Stretching concepts: The role of competing pressures and decoupling in the evolution of organization concepts”. Organization Studies, 34(1), 7-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840612464748
Höllerer, M., Jancsary, D., Barberio, V., Meyer, R. E. (2020) “The interlinking theorization of management concepts: Cohesion and semantic equivalence in management knowledge.” Organization Studies, 41(9), 1284-1310. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840619856033
Hughes, E. C. (1970). The Sociological Eye. Chicago: Aldine.
Huising, R. (2016) “From adapting practices to inhabiting ideas: how managers restructure work across organizations.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Volume 47, 383-413. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20160000047025
Hultin, L., Introna, L. D., Mähring, M. (2021)”The decentered translation of management ideas: Attending to the conditioning flow of everyday work practices.” Human Relations (New York), 74(4), 587–620. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726719897967
Hwang, H., Colyvas, J. A. (2020) “Ontology, levels of society, and degrees of generality: Theorizing actors as abstractions in institutional theory.” The Academy of Management Review, 45(3), 570-595. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0266
Joerges, B., Czarniawska, B. (1998) “The Question of Technology, or How Organizations Inscribe the World”. Organization Studies, 19(3), 363–385. https://doi.org/10.1177/017084069801900301
Kirkpatrick, I., Bullinger, B., Lega, F., Dent, M. (2013) “The translation of hospital management models in European health systems: A framework for comparison”. British Journal of Management, 24, S48-S61. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12030
Klarsfeld, A. (2009) “The diffusion of diversity management: The case of France.” Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25(4), 363-373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2009.09.004
Krücken, G. (2024) “The construction of actors in the ecology of competitions permeating science and higher education.” in An ecology of ideas permeating science, higher education, and society, Arora-Jonsson, S., Blomgren, M., Pallas, J., Wedlin, L. pp. 51-70. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Latour, B. (1986) “The powers of association.” In Power, action and belief, J. Law (ed.), pp. 264–280. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Liu, S., Emirbayer, M. (2016) “Field and ecology”. Sociological Theory, 34(1), 62-79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735275116632556
Mazza, C., Strandgaard, J., (2024) “Higher education in Europe after the diffusion of management ideas. Changes, impact, and challenges.” in An ecology of ideas permeating science, higher education, and society, Arora-Jonsson, S., Blomgren, M., Pallas, J., Wedlin, L. pp. 25-36. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Mennicken, A. (2008) “Connecting worlds: The translation of international auditing standards into post-soviet audit practice.” Accounting, Organizations and Society, 33(4), 384-414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2007.06.001
Mennicken, A. (2010) “From inspection to auditing: Audit and markets as linked ecologies”. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 35(3), 334-359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2009.07.007
Meyer, J. W. (1996) “Otherhood: The promulgation and transmission of ideas in the modern organizational environment”. In Translating organizational change, Czarniawska, B. , Sevón, G. (eds.), pp. 241–252. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Meyer, R., Höllerer, M. (2010) ”Meaning structures in a contested issue field: A topographic map of shareholder value in Austria”. Academy of Management Journal, 53(6), 1241-1262. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.57317829
Morris, T., Lancaster, Z. (2006) “Translating management ideas”. Organization Studies, 27, 207–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840605057667
Nielsen, J., Mathiassen, L., Newell, S. (2014) “Theorization and translation in information technology institutionalization: Evidence from Danish home care”. MIS Quarterly, 38(1), 165-186. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2014/38.1.08
Özen, Ş., Berkman, Ü. (2007) “Cross-national reconstruction of managerial practices: TQM in Turkey”. Organization Studies, 28(6), 825-851. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840607079863
Pallas, J., Fredriksson, M., Wedlin, L. (2016) “Translating institutional logics: When the media logic meets professions”. Organization Studies, 37(11), 1661-1684. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840616655485
Piekkari, R., Tietze, S., Koskinen, K. (2020) “Metaphorical and interlingual translation in moving organizational practices across languages”. Organization Studies, 41(9), 1311-1332. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840619885415
Radaelli, C. M. (2005) “Diffusion without convergence: How political context shapes the adoption of regulatory impact assessment.” Journal of European Public Policy, 12(5), 924-943. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501760500161621
Radaelli, G., Sitton‐Kent, L. (2016) ”Middle managers and the translation of new ideas in organizations: A review of Micro‐practices and contingencies”. International Journal of Management Reviews: IJMR, 18(3), 311-332. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12094
Ritvala, T., Granqvist, N. (2009) “Institutional entrepreneurs and local embedding of global scientific ideas—The case of preventing heart disease in Finland”. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25(2), 133-145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2009.02.005
Røvik, K-A. (2023) A Translation Theory of Knowledge Transfer. Oxord University Press.
Sahlin-Andersson, K. (1996) “Imitating by editing success: the construction of organizational fields.” In Translating Organizational Change. Czarniawska, B., Sevón, G. (eds), pp. 69–92. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Sahlin-Andersson, K. (2001) National, International and Transnational Constructions of New Public Management, In New Public Management: The Transformation of Ideas and Practice. Christensen, T., Lægreid, P. (eds), Aldershot: Ashgate.
Sahlin-Andersson, K., Engwall, L. (2002) The expansion of management knowledge. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Sahlin, K., Wedlin, L. (2008) “Circulating ideas: Imitation, translation and editing” In The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism. Greenwood,R., Oliver, C., Sahlin, K., Suddaby, R., (eds.) pp. 218-242. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Serres, M. (1982) Hermes: Literature, science, philosophy. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.
Sevón, G. (1996) “Organizational imitation in identity transformation”. In Translating organizational change, Czarniawska, B., Sevón, G. (eds.) pp. 49–67. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Spyridonidis, D., Currie, G. (2016) “The translational role of hybrid nurse middle managers in implementing clinical guidelines: Effect of, and upon, professional and managerial hierarchies”. British Journal of Management, 27(4), 760-777. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12164
Spyridonidis, D., Currie, G., Heusinkveld, S., Strauss, K., Sturdy, A. (2016) “The translation of management knowledge: Challenges, contributions and new directions”. International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 18, 231–235. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12110
Star, S. L., Griesemer, J. R. (1989) “Institutional ecology, 'translations' and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley's museum of vertebrate zoology, 1907-39.” Social Studies of Science, 19(3), 387-420. https://doi.org/10.1177/030631289019003001
Strang, D., Meyer, J.W. (1993) “Institutional conditions for diffusion” Theory and Society, 22, pp. 487–511. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00993595
Tarde, G. (1890/1962) The laws of imitation. New York: Henry Holt.
Teulier, R., Rouleau, L. (2013) “Middle managers' sensemaking and interorganizational change initiation: Translation spaces and editing practices.” Journal of Change Management, 13(3), 308-337. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2013.822674
van Grinsven, M., Sturdy, A., Heusinkveld, S. (2020) “Identities in translation: Management concepts as means and outcomes of identity work.” Organization Studies, 41(6), 873-897. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840619866490
Wade, F., Bush, R., Webb, J., (2020) “Emerging linked ecologies for a national scale retrofitting programme: The role of local authorities and delivery partners”. Energy Policy 137, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.111179
Wæraas, A., Sataøen, H. L. (2014) “Trapped in conformity? Translating reputation management into practice.” Scandinavian Journal of Management, 30, 242–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2013.05.002
Wæraas, A. & Nielsen, J. A. (2016). Translation theory “translated”: Three perspectives on translation in organizational research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 18, 236–70.
Wedlin, L., Sahlin, K., (2017) “The imitation and translation of management ideas”. In The Sage handbook of Organizational institutionalism, 2nd edition. Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Lawrence, T., Meyer, R. (eds) pp. 102-127. London: Sage Publications.
Wedlin, L., Blomgren, M., Pallas, J., Arora-Jonsson, S. (2024) ”Exploring multiple ideas in the academic field and beyond”, in An ecology of ideas permeating science, higher education, and society, Arora-Jonsson, S., Blomgren, M., Pallas, J., Wedlin, L. pp. 7-24. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Westney, D. E. (1987) Imitation and innovation : the transfer of western organizational patterns to Meiji Japan. Harvard University Press.
Westney, D. E., Piekkari, R. (2020) “Reversing the translation flow: Moving organizational practices from Japan to the U.S.” Journal of Management Studies, 57(1), 57-86. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12435
Zilber, T. B. (2006) “The work of the symbolic in institutional processes: Translations of rational myths in Israeli high tech.” Academy of Management Journal, 49(2), 281-303. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMJ.2006.20786073
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 puntOorg International Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
pIJ issues are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, International Licence CC-BY-NC-ND, which permits to copy and distribute the material for noncommercial (NC) purposes only, in any medium or format in unadapted form only (ND). All the details on the license are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
