When we read reports about the profession, whether in academic studies or professional association publications, there are often lists of entrepreneurship skills translators supposedly need to acquire: better negotiation, improved business strategy, more active marketing, or greater adaptability in a changing market.

But there is a useful question we should ask whenever we encounter this kind of framing: What is the problem represented to be?

This question comes from political theorist Carol Bacchi, whose approach, “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” (WPR), suggests that policies, reports, and expert statements do not simply describe problems; they actively frame them.

For example, when academic researchers investigating translators’ deteriorating pay rates suggests that translators need more training in negotiation and business skills, this implies that the main issue lies in translators’ lack of entrepreneurial ability. Such framing can also divert attention away from the structural conditions that may limit translators’ ability to negotiate in the first place. The actual reason why some translators may avoid negotiating is probably because they fear losing future work, or because they already know that certain LSPs will simply refuse to pay higher rates.

In my own PhD research on public service interpreters in the UK, many participants described working under conditions where rates were effectively non-negotiable. Some also expressed concern that attempting to challenge rates could reduce their chances of receiving future assignments from LSPs holding public contracts. This suggests that what is sometimes represented as a lack of entrepreneurial or negotiation skills may instead be caused by problematic power dynamics within highly intermediary-controlled labour markets, as well as lack of oversight and accountability by public bodies.

Bacchi’s approach is useful because it shows that different problem framings lead to different causal explanations and suggested responses. In one framing, the problem is presented as an individual shortcoming: translators are seen as needing training, upskilling, and personal development. This can place additional pressure on practitioners already operating in a labour market characterised by strong intermediary control over pricing, weak bargaining power, and income instability.

In another framing, the focus shifts to structure: how rates are set, how intermediaries operate, and how value is distributed across the supply chain.

Imagine overworked and underpaid translators repeatedly told to improve their business skills and undertake more training. This framing implicitly individualises responsibility by suggesting that the main barriers to improved working conditions lie within the translator. It therefore shifts attention away from systemic and structural factors.

What happens when translators invest in entrepreneurship training and continuous professional development, yet their financial situation still does not meaningfully improve? An additional question also follows from this framing: what happens when translators invest in entrepreneurship training, business coaching, or continuous professional development, yet their financial situation still does not meaningfully improve? Are they then encouraged to invest in even more training and self-improvement? And how might this affect the way translators understand themselves and their professional worth? In a system that continually individualises responsibility, there is a risk that structural problems become internalised as personal failure or underachievement. How might this affect the way translators understand themselves and their professional worth? In a system that continually individualises responsibility, there is a risk that structural problems become internalised as personal failure or underachievement.

A useful habit for translators is to apply Bacchi’s question whenever they encounter rhetoric about becoming “the linguist of the future”: What is the problem represented to be here? This directs attention to what is left out of the explanation, and who benefits from that framing.

This matters because problem definitions shape how responsibility is assigned in contexts of declining rates, unstable workloads, and potential exploitation. When framed as a lack of entrepreneurial skills, responsibility remains individualised. When framed structurally, attention shifts to collective representation, contractual standards, procurement systems, intermediary accountability, labour protections, and the organisation of the market itself—leading to very different policy directions and futures for the profession.

Given the dominance of adaptation and individual responsibility in professional discourse, this analytical shift is not merely theoretical, but a way of reopening space for alternative explanations and possibilities for change.

In a previous article, I analysed the structural factors behind persistent underpayment in translation and interpreting. I argue that financial insecurity in the industry is not primarily the result of individual shortcomings, but is produced through corporate practices that treat translators as cost variables rather than workers, and is sustained by weak legal and institutional protections. I also examine how outsourcing, inequality, and corporate-aligned institutional and academic narratives contribute to the normalisation and obscuring of these dynamics. I emphasise that deteriorating pay is a structurally produced outcome rather than an individual failure.

About the author
Fardous Bahbouh is a researcher and broadcast interpreter specialising in labour rights and the political economy of the translation and interpreting industry. Alongside her academic research, she continues to work with agencies and production companies that value interpreters and translators and provide fair working conditions. She also runs a small translation company and does not generalise critiques of large intermediaries to all translation companies or agencies.

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