Intervenir en situation de crise covid-19 : pouvoir-savoir du médiateur interculturel

In a crisis situation, does the intercultural mediator (IM) possess power that gives him or her the possibility to co-elaborate, with the other actors of the social situation, solutions to get out of this crisis with increased efficiency?
Taking as a starting point for reflection the Foucauldian conception of the interweaving of power mechanisms and elements of knowledge (Foucault, 2015, 2021), this ethnographic study explores the power-knowledge nexus in the context of a multilingual and multicultural emergency medical humanitarian aid mission triggered by the covid-19 pandemic (Médecins sans Frontières mission - MSF 2020).
On the basis of data collected through observational participation (Soulé 2007), it shows that the IM possesses power that covers strategies and tactics likely to induce behaviours and/or discourses, and that this power is consubstantial with his/her knowledge, which includes not only his/her own knowledge, but also the knowledge to which the institution gives him/her access by authorising him/her to participate in the medical discourse and to be frequently in dyadic interaction with one or other primary speaker. The power-knowledge of the IM, of whom agency (Delizée 2022) and multipartiality (INTERPRET 2015) are the main procedural mechanisms, does not seem to have been perceived by the actors as a problem, but as part of a renegotiated order where each one acts with the other from his/her own power (Leanza 2008). This collaborative modus operandi emerges in and through the social situation as the only efficient response to the challenges of the crisis.
This study contributes to the reflection on the power of the interpreter/mediator, which is not non-existent (Mason & Rent 2012), and which, if conscious and reasoned, is not to be restricted because it overshadows institutional power (Leanza & Boivin 2008), but is a skill to co-create a collaborative environment conducive to positive outcomes for both the beneficiary and the service provider (Merlini & Favaron 2003).