Working in Law’s Borderlands: Translation and the Work of an Advice Office
Increasingly people in the UK are turning to voluntary sector advice organisations for help and support in dealing with everyday problems. Here we argue that advice organisations, who work in the borderlands of law, are nevertheless key players in legal arenas, focusing on local Citizens Advice offi...
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Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law
2017-01-01
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| Series: | Oñati Socio-Legal Series |
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| Online Access: | https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/864 |
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| author | Morag McDermont Eleanor Kirk |
| author_facet | Morag McDermont Eleanor Kirk |
| author_sort | Morag McDermont |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Increasingly people in the UK are turning to voluntary sector advice organisations for help and support in dealing with everyday problems. Here we argue that advice organisations, who work in the borderlands of law, are nevertheless key players in legal arenas, focusing on local Citizens Advice offices supporting clients with employment problems. We look at the making of advisers as border-workers through programmes which turn volunteers into employment advisers; and the paid advisers who inhabit spaces on the edges of the profession. We examine the social practices of these advisers, the ways in which law-work becomes translation and advice-work becomes a process of co-production between adviser and client. In concluding, we consider how far into the legal arena it is possible to go with limited resources; and what happens when translating the technicalities of law no longer works. Translation comes to mean advisers turning to their activist-selves and adopting political tactics.
Las autoras del artículo argumentamos que las organizaciones de asistencia, que operan en los límites de la legalidad, son no obstante actores claves en el campo jurídico. Nos centramos en las oficinas locales de Atención al Ciudadano, y nos fijamos en los asistentes como trabajadores en los límites, a través de programas que forman a los voluntarios para ser orientadores laborales; y los asesores pagados que habitan espacios en los márgenes de la profesión. Examinamos las prácticas sociales de estos asesores, las formas en que el trabajo jurídico se convierte en trabajo de interpretación y el trabajo de asesoramiento se convierte en un proceso de coproducción entre asesor y cliente. Para concluir, reflexionamos sobre cuán lejos se puede llegar en el campo jurídico con recursos limitados, y sobre qué sucede cuando ya no sirve la interpretación de los tecnicismos legales. La interpretación viene a significar que los asesores recurren a su papel de activistas y adoptan tácticas políticas.
DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3067359 |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c0f4d4e1b20643dc98a21e3e34e25bbd |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2079-5971 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2017-01-01 |
| publisher | Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Oñati Socio-Legal Series |
| spelling | doaj-art-c0f4d4e1b20643dc98a21e3e34e25bbd2024-11-25T15:38:57ZengOñati International Institute for the Sociology of LawOñati Socio-Legal Series2079-59712017-01-0177726Working in Law’s Borderlands: Translation and the Work of an Advice OfficeMorag McDermont0Eleanor Kirk1University of BristolUniversity of BristolIncreasingly people in the UK are turning to voluntary sector advice organisations for help and support in dealing with everyday problems. Here we argue that advice organisations, who work in the borderlands of law, are nevertheless key players in legal arenas, focusing on local Citizens Advice offices supporting clients with employment problems. We look at the making of advisers as border-workers through programmes which turn volunteers into employment advisers; and the paid advisers who inhabit spaces on the edges of the profession. We examine the social practices of these advisers, the ways in which law-work becomes translation and advice-work becomes a process of co-production between adviser and client. In concluding, we consider how far into the legal arena it is possible to go with limited resources; and what happens when translating the technicalities of law no longer works. Translation comes to mean advisers turning to their activist-selves and adopting political tactics. Las autoras del artículo argumentamos que las organizaciones de asistencia, que operan en los límites de la legalidad, son no obstante actores claves en el campo jurídico. Nos centramos en las oficinas locales de Atención al Ciudadano, y nos fijamos en los asistentes como trabajadores en los límites, a través de programas que forman a los voluntarios para ser orientadores laborales; y los asesores pagados que habitan espacios en los márgenes de la profesión. Examinamos las prácticas sociales de estos asesores, las formas en que el trabajo jurídico se convierte en trabajo de interpretación y el trabajo de asesoramiento se convierte en un proceso de coproducción entre asesor y cliente. Para concluir, reflexionamos sobre cuán lejos se puede llegar en el campo jurídico con recursos limitados, y sobre qué sucede cuando ya no sirve la interpretación de los tecnicismos legales. La interpretación viene a significar que los asesores recurren a su papel de activistas y adoptan tácticas políticas. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3067359https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/864voluntary sector advice organisationsvolunteerstranslationemployment disputeslegal profession |
| spellingShingle | Morag McDermont Eleanor Kirk Working in Law’s Borderlands: Translation and the Work of an Advice Office Oñati Socio-Legal Series voluntary sector advice organisations volunteers translation employment disputes legal profession |
| title | Working in Law’s Borderlands: Translation and the Work of an Advice Office |
| title_full | Working in Law’s Borderlands: Translation and the Work of an Advice Office |
| title_fullStr | Working in Law’s Borderlands: Translation and the Work of an Advice Office |
| title_full_unstemmed | Working in Law’s Borderlands: Translation and the Work of an Advice Office |
| title_short | Working in Law’s Borderlands: Translation and the Work of an Advice Office |
| title_sort | working in law s borderlands translation and the work of an advice office |
| topic | voluntary sector advice organisations volunteers translation employment disputes legal profession |
| url | https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/864 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT moragmcdermont workinginlawsborderlandstranslationandtheworkofanadviceoffice AT eleanorkirk workinginlawsborderlandstranslationandtheworkofanadviceoffice |