Mots Maudits #4: Mobilisation

At a time of economic or social crisis, a word that often crosses many French copywriters’ keyboards is “mobilisation”. Obviously, the word exists in English, but subtle differences in how it is used (as well as its frequency of use) often give me pause.

First of all, in English, “mobilization” has strong military connotations. That isn’t necessarily problematic per se, especially if you are referencing (for example) business operations that involve large numbers of people physically coming together for a given purpose; the metaphor can be effective, but more often than not, there is simply another term that would describe the action in a more idiomatic manner. At the very least, there is an argument for varying word choice for the sake of clarity.

Secondly, I also think that whether the noun, adjective or verb form is used (and how) should factor significantly into word choice. Take this sentence, for example:

“les représentants cherchent a mobiliser les syndiqués”

There is a strong argument to leave “mobilize” in the target text here because it concerns the dictionary definition usage, which is to organise or prepare something, such as a group of people, for military or political reasons.

Now contrast with this second sentence:

“ils se sont mobilisés pour venir en aide aux habitants du village”

In this example, a group of people working for a charity are trying to help the inhabitants of a village, so the context is slightly different. Moreover, the reflexive form is used — the people organised themselves — so it feels unnatural to use “mobilize”. Indeed, according to the Cambridge dictionary, its use as an intransitive verb should be reserved for military contexts (“the troops mobilized for the mission…”). In this case, I would be tempted to use a passive auxiliary like “they got organised”.

In the noun form, it seems even less natural. Take this sentence, for example:

“je tiens à vous remercier pour votre mobilisation exceptionnelle cette année…”

Here, employees are being thanked for their contribution to turning a company’s fortunes around. It seems to me that the author’s use of the word does not fit with the English usage of “mobilization”; they are not organising or preparing — they have already acted. The employer is thanking them for their help, hard work, and effort; maybe for their commitment, productivity, or engagement; maybe for their teamwork or collective action. If your understanding of the context allows it, it is far more idiomatic to choose a noun that more accurately reflects the behaviour exhibited.

When the adjective form is used in French (e.g. “nos équipes restent mobilisés pour vous accompagner pendant cette période compliquée”), it is far more clear-cut. There is no corresponding adjective form in English, so you need to establish which of the above adjectives (i.e. hard-working, committed, productive, engaged) best fit the context, or rephrase in order to say the same thing in a roundabout way (e.g. “we remain fully committed to providing you with the best service during this difficult time”).

And finally, as I alluded to at the start, a Google Ngram search shows that “mobilisation” in French is twice as common as “mobilization” in English, and that gap was twice as big again as recently as the year 2000:

References to a “mobilized workforce” are a clear sign of “translatorese” and can make for stilted prose; weeding out these types of words has the added benefit of creating greater clarity and improving readability.