Translation and (Counter-)Intelligence: The Interpenetration of Social-Systemic Boundary Phenomena

Translation and (counter-)intelligence are two social-systemic boundary phenomena. Translation acts on the outside of the boundary, ectohomorously; (C)I acts on the inside, endohomorously. This article describes the complex interaction between them. Their functioning may overlap, as is the case in (C)I field operations, or they may act separately, as at (C)I headquarters. In the field, agents operate within a narrow, very focused sector with precise tactical tasks and they simply cannot always afford to have translators helping them; in the field, translation and (C)I tend to interact within one and the same agent who acts both endo- and ectohomorously. At headquarters, (C)I is removed from direct exposure to the enemy, so it can afford to act endohomorously and delegate the ectohomorous function to translation. Moreover, (C)I activities at HQ are strategic and cover expansive geopolitical regions, making it impossible to combine the endo- and ectohomorous functions in one agent. As a result, the focus of (C)I is on endohomorous functions, such as planning and carrying out (counter-)intelligence activities, and translation is practised by special agents: ‘linguists’ or ‘translators’

In a wilderness of mirrors: the ethics of translation in Cold-War espionage

The article looks at translation in the context of (counter)intelligence. Here translation finds itself in a situation in which scarcity of information turns originals into fragments rather than proper texts. This changes the way the translator works: s/he has to constantly justify his/her decisions, acting in several capacities or with different experts and foregrounding his/her presence in the text. This presence also points to the most difficult of ethical choices to be made. Translation mediates between conflicting or rivalling parties. To mediate, the translator must learn about and identify with an/the other, yet this other is an enemy.The translator must remember that s/he works not against but for the party to which s/he has pledged allegiance. The allegiance may be towards the party for which the translator works, or for the country in which s/he lives, and where s/he acts as a patriot. But the allegiance may be towards the ‘enemy’ – the absolute other – and here the translator’s loyalty is perceived simultaneously as treachery. The ethical ‘wilderness of mirrors’ to be navigated by translators within the (counter)espionage setting reveals a complex layering of multiple acts of fidelity and betrayal, agency and double agency

Is translation an autopoietic system?

Translation is analyzed from the standpoint of its systemic properties. Translation is shown to have the capacity to observe itself and its difference from the environment. Observation being a major autopoietic factor, translation may be considered as an autopoietic system. Doubts about this hypothesis arise because of the peculiarities of communicative properties of translation. Translation plays the role of the mediating party in complex translation communication events and its communicative behavior is ‘defective’ in that translation does not act upon source messages because its communicative function is passing messages on to the target party. As a system, translation may be studied against the background of its environment and be compared with other social systems. It may also be viewed as a subsystem within larger social formations. Although, as a mediator by nature, translation thrives on structural couplings and interpenetrations with other systems, thereby manifesting its exceptional interactional openness, it nonetheless constitutes an operational closure with its own first- and second-order observations.Dans cette article, la traduction est analysée du point de vue de ses propriétés systémiques. La traduction a la capacité de s’observer et d’observer sa différence par rapport à l’environnement. Etant donné que l’observation est un facteur autopoïétique majeur, la traduction peut donc être considérée comme un système autopoïétique. Les doutes concernant cette hypothèse peuvent être attribués aux particularités des propriétés communicatives de la traduction. La traduction joue le rôle de médiatrice, ou de partie médiatrice, dans une communication traductive aux manifestations complexes et son comportement communicatif est « défectueux » dans la mesure où elle n’agit pas sur les messages source, sa fonction communicative étant de faire passer les messages à la partie cible. En tant que système, la traduction peut être étudiée dans le cadre de son environnement et comparée à d’autres systèmes sociaux. Elle peut être également envisagée comme un sous-système à l’intérieur de formations sociales plus larges. Bien que la traduction, soit-elle médiatrice par nature, soit portée par des couplages structurels et des interpénétrations avec d’autres systèmes, manifestant de ce fait son exceptionnelle ouverture interactionnelle, elle constitue une fermeture opérationnelle face à ses propres observations de premier et second ordre

Rational Use of Land Resource During the Implementation of Transportless System of Coal Strata Surface Mining

Surface mining and open pits engineering affect the environment in a very negative way. Among other pollutions that open pits make during mineral deposits exploiting, particular problem is the landscape changing. Along with converting the land into pits, surface mining is connected with pilling dumps that occupy large ground. The article describes an analysis of transportless methods of several coal seams strata surface mining, applied for open pits of South Kuzbass coal enterprises (Western Siberia, Russia). To improve land-use management of open pit mining enterprises, the characteristics of transportless technological schemes for several coal seams strata surface mining are highlighted and observed. These characteristics help to systematize transportless open mining technologies using common criteria that characterize structure of the bottom part of a strata and internal dumping schemes. The schemes of transportless systems of coal strata surface mining implemented in South Kuzbass are given

A Tradução como fato social

O presente artigo propõe-se a uma releitura de obras clássicas de um dos fundadores da Sociologia Clássica, Émile Durkheim, em sua aplicabilidade para pesquisas na área de Tradução. Considera, portanto, que, uma vez que a ação tradutória é compreendida como um fenômeno social dentro dos Estudos da Tradução, estes deveriam buscar por conceitos da Sociologia, a fim de não tentar "reinventar a roda". Sugere-se, então, que a Sociologia seja diferenciada da Psicologia de uma forma metodologicamente clara. Dentro desse campo, pesquisas individuais sobre traduções e tradutores, a não ser quando colocados em contexto social, não ajudam a compreender o processo como um fenômeno social. Metodologias para o estudo sociologicamente direcionado não poderiam, pois, edificar-se no senso comum, que, na maioria das vezes, acaba por dificultar ao invés de ajuda a ver a tradução como um fenômeno sociológico. Em outras palavras, em nossa investigação, a Tradução é trabalhada como um fato social e a necessidade de estudá-la como tal é fortemente enfatizada

From Mining Innovations to Sustainable Development: Keynote Speakers of the First to the Second International Innovative Mining Symposium

24-26 April, 2017 the Scientific Practical Conference “International Innovative Mining Symposium (in memory of Prof. Vladimir Pronoza)” was successfully organized at T.F. Gorbachev Kuzbass State Technical University - KuzSTU (Kemerovo Russia). More than 20 participants submitted their papers in presence, and more than 40 authors sent their papers for virtual participation. The main participants of the conference - Keynote Speakers - paid special attention to the development of international cooperation of technical universities as a form of accelerating the transfer of innovations in mineral resources mining and processing

Economic and Technological Role of Kuzbass Industry in the Implementation of National Energy Strategy of Russian Federation

This article describes the problems and prospects of development of coal mining in Kuzbass - the center of coal production in Siberia and Russia, in the framework of the major initiatives of the National Energy Strategy for the period until 2035. The structural character of the regional coal industry problems, caused by decline in investment activity, high level of fixed assets depreciation, slow development of deep coal processing and technological reduction of coal mining is shown

The Choice of Technology and Equipment for Coal Seamsof Different Bedding Excavation at Kuzbass Surface MinesBased on Digging Capacity and Unit Costs

The paper deals with an approach to the choice of equipment and technological schemes for the extraction of coal seams of different bedding by excavators of high specific productivity. A wide variety of mining and geological conditions for the coal seams bedding in the quarry fields of Kuzbass (Western Siberia, Russia) determines the use of a variety of high-performance excavation (rope and hydraulic shovels, hydraulic backhoes, draglines) and transport (dump trucks, railway trains, draglines) equipment used in various technological schemes. The problem lies in the choice of the excavator type and the technological scheme of its use for extracting coal from seams with different dip angles and thickness within the boundaries of one quarry field in order to achieve maximum productivity and economic efficiency of the entire site development. This article substantiates the analysis of the present and promising coal mining technologies using mechanical shovels, draglines and hydraulic backhoes in order to determine the optimal technological schemes for specific conditions. The basic principle of the proposed idea is to ensure the maximum ratio of the excavator's actual performance and unit costs, taking into account geological conditions and coal loss during extraction. In this regard, based on the analysis, the article presents recommendations for choosing a technological scheme when replacing equipment based on mining and geological conditions. Under certain circumstances, the analysis may result in a recommendation for a complete replacement of the excavator fleet. The advantage of the presented method, along with computational efficiency and visualization, is the applicability for the analysis of technological schemes of any complexity, which makes it possible to use it for the design of sections that develop complex-structured coal deposit

Innovative Technics of Managing Engineers' Global Competencies

Higher education modernization in the CIS countries takes place under the conditions of dynamic changes in economy and society. These changes are determined by the social and economic development of the country and the world globalization processes - cross-border intercultural communication, knowledge transparency, and the establishment of information society. Educational globalization is a continuous process of creating a unified global educational system, in which the distinctions between its member educational systems are being blended

Across the Cross: Translation, Transgression, War

The world, as we know it, does not exist in an undivided state-the world is always a combination of marked and unmarked parts. Even if an observer attempts to observe the world in its entirety, the world will inevitably be divided into the observed and the observer. In other words, the world should be presented as ever-crossed, that is, containing a cross