National Research Funding for Sustainable Growth in Translation Studies as an Academic Discipline in China

Zhiwei Jiang, Yun Wu and Linda Tsung
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Zhiwei Jiang: School of Foreign Languages, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Yun Wu: School of Foreign Languages, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Linda Tsung: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-16

Abstract: Global changes in both the current economic climate and political priorities have posed significant challenges concerning government spending on research, which undermines the survival and development of a number of academic disciplines, especially those in arts and humanities. This article reports on an inquiry that examines whether and how national research funding has supported the development of translation studies as an academic discipline in China, employing the example of the National Social Science Fund of China (NSSFC) subsidy, as allocated to the field of translation studies. Firstly, we accessed the NSSFC database for all programs featuring translation and translation studies between 2010 and 2019. Secondly, we coded, categorized, and processed the data in a quantitative manner. Our examination of the number of grants, research focuses, and frequently examined issues of these programs has led us to conclude the fact that NSSFC has facilitated the increase in translation studies as an academic discipline in China. Further investigation into the positive relationship between NSSFC funding policies and mechanism and the growth in academic translation studies has also identified the ways NSSFC boosts translation studies as an academic discipline in China: to promote and increase the market, interdisciplinary, and multimodal applicability of the research output. The findings also suggest that revisions may be needed to further refine the NSSFC mechanism so that translation studies will develop into a balanced, continuously innovative discipline.

Keywords: national funding; research programs; translation studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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