On the Etymology of Arabic Terms in the Contemporary Social Sciences

Abstract

Any well-defined academic term is inherently tied to the discipline from which it emerges. Nonetheless, academic disciplines go beyond the knowledge of specific terms. For this reason it is important to create a consistent and unified glossary of Arabic terminology for the contemporary social sciences. This paper will focus on the terminological difficulties of translating the concept of «Communities of Practice», which is central to contemporary social sciences, into Arabic. It is the author’s contention that any difficulties associated with the proper contextualization of this term into Arabic is to do with the phrase «community» itself a concept of central importance to the Western academic discourse. This paper shall explore the development of the concept of a «community» and the theoretical difficulties confronted in replicating the same meaning in Arabic. Following that, this paper argues that the most suitable Arabic term to convey «communities of practice» is Ahl al Mumarasa.