Humanities & Social Sciences 3 (2016 9) 568-578 ~ ~ ~ УДК 347.78.034 If the Mountain Won’t Come… Translation Studies Meets Localization Andrei V. Achkasov* St. Petersburg State University 7/9 Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia Received 09.09.2015, received in revised form 22.12.2015, accepted 10.01.2016 Localization has signifi cantly infl uenced translation tasks and roles of translators due to the technological development of text production, processing and distribution. <...> However, Translation Studies remains at the periphery of a broader area of emerging Localization Studies that includes related scholarly research in IT technology, human-computer interaction, empirical Cultural Studies, cross-cultural and international management, etc. <...> These lines of theoretical, descriptive and applied research are currently isolated and need to be synthesized and problematized under a unifying theoretical framework. <...> Theoretical conceptualizations that provide a theoretical framework for a transdisciplinary turn in localization research are few and have not generated much enthusiasm among TS scholars. <...> It has signifi cantly infl uenced translation tasks and roles of translators due to the developing technological context of text production, processing and distribution. <...> The new realities of localization have been addressed both by the emerging and highly fragmented scholarly area of Localization Studies and by Translation © Siberian Federal University. <...> All rights reserved * Corresponding author E-mail address: a.achkasov@spbu.ru # 568 # Localization has been TS vs Industry Discourse an issue in TS for about two decades. <...> The share of TS in localization research remains insignifi cant. The present paper draws on the relations between TS and the new challenging area of practice and research. discourse, Andrei V.Achkasov. <...> This monograph addresses and encapsulates key topics in the fi eld, including the emergence and progress of localization, localization processes, management and quality assessment, methods of scholarly research and training, etc. <...> The chapters on the nature of digital texts, genres and the relevance of TS methods in web localization research are the author’s major original contribution to this interdisciplinary fi eld. <...> Overall, however, the issues of localization are peripheral within current TS. There seems to be a common agreement that “there has been remarkably little debate about localization <...>