Investigating intersubjectivity as a discursive accomplishment in relation to interpreter mediation: building a conceptual and analytical framework

This article explores the problem of intersubjective understanding in
interpreter mediation as an emergent process in order to illuminate the gaps and
slippages that occur at the interface where different professions meet in providing
service delivery to service users with a limited linguistic capacity for dealing with
complex institutional contexts. Building on a small study of interpreter and
service provider perceptions of the occupational other (Tipton 2012), the article
considers a range of sites where intersubjective understanding can be discursively
accomplished (e.g. service encounters and research interviews) and the
conceptual and methodological implications of such sites for evaluating reflexive
orientations to other at the level of service delivery.