User Interventions in interpreting and Trust as a Social Notion

Abstract Interpreting constitutes a social activity in which users of interpreting—speakers and listeners—communicate with one another through the interpreter. In line with sociological approaches within Interpreting Studies, understanding the significance of the relationships between the interpreter and the participants in the communicative event is essential. Accordingly, this article examines user interventions in the interpreting process, first from the perspective of trust in the interpreter. It then considers user interventions through the lens of the interpreter’s visibility and invisibility. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with professional interpreters of political discourse in Albania, the article analyses interpreters’ experiences of user interventions in both consecutive and simultaneous interpreting settings.