Home Linguistics & Semiotics Chapter 6. Child language brokering in Swedish welfare institutions
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chapter 6. Child language brokering in Swedish welfare institutions

A matter of structural complicity?
  • Kristina Gustafsson
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
To Publisher Page
Translating Asymmetry – Rewriting Power
This chapter is in the book Translating Asymmetry – Rewriting Power

Abstract

This chapter investigates the asymmetries associated to child language brokering in Swedish welfare institutions. Group interviews with (a) people who have experiences of language brokering as children and (b) public service professionals who have used children as brokers in encounters with non-Swedish speaking service users are analyzed. Results show that both groups consider that resorting to child language brokering is wrong but at the same time they reproduce this social practice and see benefits in it. This ambiguity leads interviewees to lay responsibility on several levels: the parents who place unreasonable demands on their children; the public service professionals who allow children to take on responsibility in precarious situations, and society at large that may be accomplice to structural discrimination of non-Swedish speaking service users. The responsibilities identified by interviewees in their narratives are critically discussed in relation to the concept of “structural complicity” showing how power relations and social structures create situations where individuals act with complicity even when they do something that they consider to be a good solution for an imperative problem and for which they do not see any alternatives.

Abstract

This chapter investigates the asymmetries associated to child language brokering in Swedish welfare institutions. Group interviews with (a) people who have experiences of language brokering as children and (b) public service professionals who have used children as brokers in encounters with non-Swedish speaking service users are analyzed. Results show that both groups consider that resorting to child language brokering is wrong but at the same time they reproduce this social practice and see benefits in it. This ambiguity leads interviewees to lay responsibility on several levels: the parents who place unreasonable demands on their children; the public service professionals who allow children to take on responsibility in precarious situations, and society at large that may be accomplice to structural discrimination of non-Swedish speaking service users. The responsibilities identified by interviewees in their narratives are critically discussed in relation to the concept of “structural complicity” showing how power relations and social structures create situations where individuals act with complicity even when they do something that they consider to be a good solution for an imperative problem and for which they do not see any alternatives.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Contributors ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Section I. Revisiting the foundations of asymmetry
  6. Chapter 1. Translating strangers 15
  7. Chapter 2. Negotiating asymmetry 35
  8. Chapter 3. Helpers, professional authority, and pathologized bodies 55
  9. Chapter 4. An information asymmetry framework for strategic translation policy in multinational corporations 77
  10. Chapter 5. Tom, Dick and Harry as well as Fido and Puss in boots are translators 101
  11. Section II. Unveiling the structure
  12. Chapter 6. Child language brokering in Swedish welfare institutions 125
  13. Chapter 7. Responsibility, powerlessness, and conflict 145
  14. Chapter 8. Of places, spaces, and faces 169
  15. Chapter 9. Translating values 197
  16. Chapter 10. EU institutional websites 227
  17. Section III. Resisting asymmetries
  18. Chapter 11. Translation, multilingualism and power differential in contemporary African literature 255
  19. Chapter 12. Small yet powerful 269
  20. Chapter 13. Against the asymmetry of the post-Francoist canon 291
  21. Chapter 14. Citizens as agents of translation versions 313
  22. Chapter 15. (Re)locating translation within asymmetrical power dynamics 335
  23. Chapter 16. Agency and social responsibility in the translation of the migration crisis 361
  24. Index 379
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.157.06gus

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Contributors ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Section I. Revisiting the foundations of asymmetry
  6. Chapter 1. Translating strangers 15
  7. Chapter 2. Negotiating asymmetry 35
  8. Chapter 3. Helpers, professional authority, and pathologized bodies 55
  9. Chapter 4. An information asymmetry framework for strategic translation policy in multinational corporations 77
  10. Chapter 5. Tom, Dick and Harry as well as Fido and Puss in boots are translators 101
  11. Section II. Unveiling the structure
  12. Chapter 6. Child language brokering in Swedish welfare institutions 125
  13. Chapter 7. Responsibility, powerlessness, and conflict 145
  14. Chapter 8. Of places, spaces, and faces 169
  15. Chapter 9. Translating values 197
  16. Chapter 10. EU institutional websites 227
  17. Section III. Resisting asymmetries
  18. Chapter 11. Translation, multilingualism and power differential in contemporary African literature 255
  19. Chapter 12. Small yet powerful 269
  20. Chapter 13. Against the asymmetry of the post-Francoist canon 291
  21. Chapter 14. Citizens as agents of translation versions 313
  22. Chapter 15. (Re)locating translation within asymmetrical power dynamics 335
  23. Chapter 16. Agency and social responsibility in the translation of the migration crisis 361
  24. Index 379
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 29.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/btl.157.06gus/html
Scroll to top button