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The Diversity Report on Books and Translation
Europe is growing together not only economically but culturally, too. As globalisation pervades our cultures and cultural scenes, the number of book translations is experiencing a steady decline. Until a few years ago it was barely possible to precisely estimate the degree of cultural diversity due to a lack of pertinent data. Now the Diversity Report aims to develop an overall picture of the current situation.
We are living in an age when the process of globalisation is accelerating year after year in almost all areas. Seemingly paradoxically, this coincides with a dramatic reduction in the number of books that are being translated. Between two thirds and three quarters of all book translations are from English, and the three most popular source languages, English, German and French, cover around 80 percent of all translations. Translations from languages that are spoken less widely and especially from “exotic” languages with an even smaller number of speakers are very rare occurrences these days.
A series of studies of different scope and with various focuses that started only a few years ago are gradually providing the basis for the development of an overall picture of cultural diversity. This had led to the Diversity Report, an annual report with varying focuses that looks at facts and figures connected to translations and the publishing industry, analyses and evaluates these, and chronicles the events of the previous three years. It also summarises the relevant policy aspects and provides an outlook and recommendations. The Diversity Report thus raises public awareness of questions of cultural diversity in the book publishing industry.