Issues of distance, or rather closeness, to study participants requires getting to know as much as possible about cross cultural difference and to make attempts at mutual understanding at the local level. Regarding epistemological issues, the creation of knowledge and how it is we come to know what we know are in question. Power, or more accurately networks of power, are at stake here. Epistemological questions challenge us to be self-conscious. Translation issues, at a deeper structural level, concern the operational recognition of the subjective lens that researchers filter information through thus calling into question the language and discourse of those who not only translate experiences and perceptions of others but also reproduce ethnocentrism with dominant cultural bias or obsolete theory.
Translation is never perfect.
Each of us has unique viewpoints based on our origins of race, ethnicity, class, and gender, plus experiences gained due to being in these socially constructed categories. Issues of representation squarely focus on what and who is real, what and who is valuable. At the stage of research reporting we speak of authoring lives. It becomes extremely important to know whose voice is being promoted and heard, the researcher or the subject. What is called for here is a deconstruction of literary devices along with the deconstruction of textual authority and meaning making.