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Multilingual Knowledge Production and Dissemination in Wikipedia: A spatial narrative analysis of the collaborative construction of city-related articles within the user-generated encyclopaedia A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2017

Henry A. Jones

School of Arts, Languages and Cultures

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CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 12

1.1 INTRODUCING WIKIPEDIA ...................................................................................... 12

1.2 RESEARCH CONTEXT .............................................................................................. 17

1.3 WIKIPEDIA IN/AND TRANSLATION STUDIES RESEARCH ......................................... 21

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ........................................................................................... 30

1.5 OVERVIEW OF THESIS STRUCTURE ........................................................................ 32

2 SPACE AND SPATIALITY ................................................................................................... 35

2.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 35

2.2 THE SPATIAL TURN ................................................................................................. 36

2.2.2 The spatial turn in the context of wider societal change ............................... 39

2.3 TRANSLATION STUDIES AND THE SPATIAL TURN .................................................. 42

2.3.1 The geography of translation ......................................................................... 43

2.3.2 The translation of geographies ...................................................................... 46

2.4 HENRI LEFEBVRE .................................................................................................... 48

2.4.1 ͞L'espace (social) est un produit (social)" ...................................................... 48

2.4.2 Implications and applications ........................................................................ 51

2.4.3 Criticisms ........................................................................................................ 56

2.5 HETEROTOPIA ........................................................................................................ 58

2.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY .............................................................................................. 61

3

3 NARRATIVE AND NARRATIVITY ....................................................................................... 63

3.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 63

3.2 NARRATIVE THEORY ............................................................................................... 64

3.3 APPLICATIONS OF NARRATIVE THEORY IN TRANSLATION STUDIES ...................... 67

3.4 TIME, SPACE AND NARRATIVE ............................................................................... 69

3.5 A TYPOLOGY OF SPATIAL NARRATIVES .................................................................. 73

3.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY .............................................................................................. 83

4 METHODOLOGY AND DATA SELECTION ......................................................................... 85

4.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 85

4.2 METHODOLOGICAL POSSIBILITIES ......................................................................... 85

4.2.1 Reference Lists ............................................................................................... 87

4.2.2 Revision History archives ............................................................................... 91

4.2.3 Talk pages ....................................................................................................... 94

4.2.4 User Profile pages .......................................................................................... 95

4.2.5 Statistics engines ............................................................................................ 99

4.3 METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES ........................................................................ 101

4.3.1 Size ............................................................................................................... 101

4.3.2 Instability ...................................................................................................... 103

4.3.3 Ethics ............................................................................................................ 105

4.3.4 Hyperlinks .................................................................................................... 106

4.3.5 Translation ................................................................................................... 107

4.4 DATA SELECTION AND COLLECTION .................................................................... 108

4.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY ............................................................................................ 112

5 WIKIPEDIA AS SOCIAL SPACE ........................................................................................ 113

5.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 113

5.2 WIKIPEDIA AS CONCEIVED SPACE ........................................................................ 114

5.3 CORE GROUP ANALYSIS ....................................................................................... 118

5.3.1 Data .............................................................................................................. 118

5.3.2 Results from the English-language Wikipedia .............................................. 124

5.3.3 Results from the French-language Wikipedia .............................................. 128

5.4 REFERENCE LIST ANALYSIS ................................................................................... 132

5.4.1 Results from the English-language Wikipedia .............................................. 133

5.4.2 Results from the French-language Wikipedia .............................................. 139

5.5 USER COMMENTS ANALYSIS ................................................................................ 147

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5.5.1 Availability, currency and accuracy .............................................................. 147

5.5.2 Authority and impartiality ............................................................................ 151

5.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY ............................................................................................ 153

6.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 155

6.2 WIKIPEDIA AS A SPACE FOR THE PRODUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF

EXPERTISE ......................................................................................................................... 156

6.2.1 ͞Tokyo is not a city" ..................................................................................... 160

6.2.2 Originality and difference ............................................................................ 166

6.4 WIKIPEDIA AS NEUTRAL/OCCUPIED TERRITORY .................................................. 184

6.4.1 What's in a name͍ ....................................................................................... 185

6.4.2 Rival etymologies ......................................................................................... 189

6.5 (CON)FUSION ....................................................................................................... 194

6.5.1 Bombay or Mumbai?.................................................................................... 195

6.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY ............................................................................................ 201

7 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 202

7.1 EXTENDING TRANSLATION ................................................................................... 202

7.2 REFLECTIONS ON THE CHOICE OF DATASET ........................................................ 208

7.3 CLOSING REMARKS .............................................................................................. 211

8 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................. 213

8.1 CORE DATASET ..................................................................................................... 213

8.2 ADDITIONAL PRIMARY SOURCES ......................................................................... 214

8.3 SECONDARY SOURCES .......................................................................................... 219

APPENDICES ......................................................................................................................... 238

APPENDIX I: Core group analysis for English-language dataset ....................................... 239

Included on accompanying CD-ROM (please see note on p.9 below): APPENDIX III: Reference List analysis for the English-language dataset APPENDIX IV: Reference List analysis for the French-language dataset [Word count: 79,803 words.] 5

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1: A 'dual' typology of narratives, presented by Harding (2012b) ........................... 76

Figure 3.2: A typology of spatial narratives. .......................................................................... 77

Figure 4.1: The Wikipedia editing interface. .......................................................................... 87

Figure 4.2: Illustration of the use of numbered 'reference' or 'citation' links. ...................... 88

Figure 4.3: Montage of sections of the Reference Lists relevant to the article text

reproduced in Figure 4.2. ....................................................................................................... 90

Figure 4.4: Screenshot indicating the location of the 'View history' tab. .............................. 92

Figure 4.5: Screenshot showing Revision History for the English-language article about

Moscow.. ................................................................................................................................ 93

Figure 4.6: Screenshot showing the 'Difference between revisions' tool. ............................ 93

Figure 4.7: Screenshot showing the location of the 'Talk' page tab. ..................................... 95

Figure 4.8: User Profile page for Simonides........................................................................... 97

Figure 4.9: User Profile page for Hectorian. .......................................................................... 98

Figure 4.10: Wikipedia Babel boxes for Swedish, English, Norwegian, Hebrew, Italian,

Spanish and Aragonese. ......................................................................................................... 98

Figure 4.11: Revision History Statistics for the English-language Wikipedia article about Paris.

............................................................................................................................................. 100

Figure 5.1: Classification in Microsoft Excel of referenced sources for the English-language

Wikipedia page about Rome. ............................................................................................... 137

Figure 5.2: Example of a banner placed on the Talk page of an article which has been

translated from content in another language edition of Wikipedia. ................................... 140

Figure 5.3: Screenshot of the Tokyo population density resource cited by Prozzak. .......... 150

Figure 6.1: Wikipedia: Tokyo: Revision as of 14:24, 19 February 2004. .............................. 161

Figure 6.2: Wikipedia: Tokyo: Revision as of 01:36, 21 April 2005. ..................................... 164

Figure 6.3: Wikipedia (FR): Jerusalem: Revision as of 13:18, 31 August 2008. ................... 172 Figure 6.4: Wikipedia (FR): Jerusalem: Revision as of 18:11, 21 September 2008. ............. 173

Figure 6.5: p.13 of Labourdette et al. (2009) Petit futé: Paris sorties.................................. 179

Figure 6.6: First solution to the naming problems raised in the English-language article Figure 6.7: Second solution to the naming problems raised in the English-language article

Figure 6.8: Wikipedia: Istanbul: Revision as of 13:31, 21 October 2014. ............................ 193

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 5.1: Number of contributors involved in each Wikipedia page contained within the

dataset (as of 18 March 2016). ............................................................................................ 120

as of 14:32, 11 March 2016. ................................................................................................ 122

Table 5.3: Summary of results from analysis of core groups of editors active within English- Table 5.4: Summary of results from analysis of core groups of editors active within French- Table 5.5: Summary of results from core group analysis for editors active within French- Table 5.6: Statistical analysis of Reference Lists found at the foot of the English-language Table 5.7: Breakdown of languages in which the cited source materials are written ......... 136 Table 5.8.1: Analysis of references linked from French-language articles about English-

speaking cities ...................................................................................................................... 142

Table 5.8.2: Breakdown of the different languages in which the cited source materials are

written.................................................................................................................................. 142

Table 5.9.1: Analysis of references linked from French-language articles about non-English-

speaking cities ...................................................................................................................... 143

Table 5.9.2: Breakdown of the different languages in which the cited source materials are

written.................................................................................................................................. 145

Table 6.1: Comparison of Michel1961's translation with the English-language IRCJS (1997)

text. ...................................................................................................................................... 170

Table 6.2: Examples of reader feedback for the English-language article on Paris (2013). 183 Table 6.3: Summary of major changes in naming policy for the French-language article 7

ABSTRACT

As the fifth most visited website on the internet today, the user-generated encyclopaedia Wikipedia has attracted significant attention from researchers based across the academic disciplines. However, this previous work has generally neglected the multilingual aspects of the encyclopaedia, and downplayed the significance of translation within the collaborative processes of content creation

that take place within the platform. Consequently, this doctoral thesis has set out to investigate the

people and practices involved in the co-production and dissemination of knowledge across linguistic and cultural borders in the context of Wikipedia. By developing an analytical approach that combines narrative theory (Baker 2006) with insights drawn from the work of Henri Lefebvre (1974/1991) and Michel Foucault (1967/1986), I have examined the construction of 27 city-related

articles published within the English- and French-language editions of the platform. This analysis has

shown that Wikipedia volunteers make abundant use of source materials published in a diversity of languages other than that in which they are writing, and that the creation of these encyclopaedic

articles involves a wide range of partly overlapping multilingual activities, a complex combination of

translating, re-contextualising, summarising and synthesising. My study has also brought to light the

multi-faceted negotiations that occur between the different participants involved in these processes of intersubjective knowledge production. This has drawn attention to Wikipedia as a space of discordant juxtaposition and creative simultaneity, and foregrounded the cacophony of opposing narrative positionings present within each article-focused community of multilingual produsers. 8

DECLARATION

No portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support of an application for

another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning.

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the ͞Copyright") and sͬhe has giǀen The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and other intellectual property (the ͞Intellectual Property") and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual

Property and/or Reproductions.

iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=24420), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library's regulations (see http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/about/regulations/) and in The Uniǀersity's policy on Presentation of Theses. 9

NOTE ON HYPERLINKS

An electronic version of this thesis has been uploaded to the CD-ROM included at the back of this document. This has been done to facilitate access to the online Wikipedia-based content on which much of this thesis focuses: all of the Wikipedia-based references have been hyperlinked so that clicking on these links will direct the reader to the specific webpage in question.

NOTE ON APPENDICES

There are four appendices attached to this thesis: APPENDIX I contains detailed tables providing the results of the core group analysis for the

English-language dataset (see Section 5.3.2);

APPENDIX II contains detailed tables providing the results of the core group analysis for the

French-language dataset (see Section 5.3.3);

APPENDIX III contains detailed Microsoft Excel tables providing the results of the Reference List analysis for the English-language dataset (see Section 5.4.1). A PDF download of each of the corresponding Wikipedia articles is also included; APPENDIX IV contains detailed Microsoft Excel tables providing the results of the Reference List analysis for the French-language dataset (see Section 5.4.2). A PDF download of each of the corresponding Wikipedia articles is also included. Appendices I and II are included as the final section of this document. Appendices III and IV have been uploaded to the accompanying CD-ROM. 10

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my academic supervisor Professor Luis Pérez-González for his constant help and

guidance throughout my PhD programme. His patience, diligence and wealth of expertise have been invaluable to the success of this thesis project. My thanks also go to the other members of my supervisory team, Dr Barbara Lebrun and Dr Maeve Olohan, for their careful feedback and always incisive suggestions. Finally, I am indebted to my family and friends, without whose moral and practical support none of this would have been possible. This research was sponsored by the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), as well as by the Uniǀersity of Manchester's 11

To my parents

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1 INTRODUCTION

Imagine a world in which every single person

on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. - Jimmy Wales (2004b)

1.1 INTRODUCING WIKIPEDIA

There is certainly no shortage of anecdotes concerning the notorious unreliability of the online user-

generated encyclopaedia Wikipedia. One story involves for example Léon-Robert de L'Astran, an eighteenth-century merchant ship-owner and humanist from La Rochelle, France, who was actively involved in campaigning for an end to French participation in the slave trade. In fact, such was his exceptional and outspoken commitment to the cause that, to mark the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in June 2010, the French politician and prominent member of the French Socialist Party,

Ségolène Royal, paid extensive homage to the historical figure in her high profile blog posts on the

subject (Brosset 2010). Following her lead, the story of de L'Astran's actiǀism appeared in a host of

further blog entries and newspaper articles across the world; a tourist-industry organisation in La

The problem, it was later revealed, was that Léon-Robert de L'Astran had neǀer actually edžisted t

except, that is, on Wikipedia. After consulting with a number of expert historians and specialists in

13 the field, the French press were gleefully able to report that, while undoubtedly inspired by true (Brosset 2010). Such cautionary tales do of course highlight the inherent weakness of an encyclopaedia which, as its

tagline makes ǀery clear, ͞anyone can edit", anonymously and at the click of a mouse (Wikipedia:

position that the encyclopaedia has come to occupy in many societies across the modern world and its considerable influence as a knowledge resource both on and offline. Indeed, for many people,

Wikipedia has truly become ͞part and parcel of the ordinary routines of our networked life" (Loǀinck

& Tkacz 2011: 9), a fact confirmed by the site's impressiǀe usage data͗ according to the Wikimedia

Foundation2, the Wikipedia platform receives an average of 15 billion page views a month (around

6,000 page views a second) from a worldwide readership of approximately 495 million individuals

(Wikimedia: Statistics: Page views). On any given day, 15% of all internet users will consult the encyclopaedia (The Economist 2014), making it the fifth most visited website on the internet (Alexa

Traffic Statistics: Wikipedia). What is more, due to its unique position as by far the largest free online

knowledge source, many important technologies and web-based applications now rely heavily on

the site (Hecht & Gergle 2010; Swarts 2009). As one journalist recently put it, ͞look something up on

Google or ask Siri a question on your iPhone, and you'll often get tidbits of information pulled from

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