Tag: politics
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What Does the 2026 World Cup Have in Common with Court Interpreting?
At first glance, absolutely nothing. One is a global sporting event watched by billions. The other is an essential public service that helps ensure access to justice. Yet both are increasingly governed by the same principle: dynamic pricing. The 2026 FIFA World Cup has already generated headlines because of the extraordinary cost of tickets. Unlike…
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Are Translators Being Treated as Professionals, Entrepreneurs, or “Humans as a Service”?
Drawing on Jeremias Prassl’s concept of “Humans as a Service” (developed in relation to the gig economy) (2018), this article argues that translation work is increasingly organised in ways that combine formal independence with practical dependency. Translators are often presented as freelancers or professionals, yet in practice they operate within tightly structured systems where rates,…
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Why can’t translators go on strike? How dominant narratives obscure the possibility of collective action
I came across the claim that translators cannot go on strike in an academic book on translation and capitalism. I am interrogating this assumption as part of my work on re-politicising translation labour and developing a theory of change for the UK translation and interpreting industry. My interest is not simply whether translators can strike,…
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Who gets to define what counts as credible knowledge about translators’ rights—and whose knowledge is excluded in the process?
Recently, in a conversation with a senior representative of a translation and interpreting professional body, I found myself saying something quite simple: it does not make sense for us to be positioned on opposite sides of this discussion, because one side represents translators, and the other is trying to write about their rights. This perplexing…
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The Dangerous Politics of “Working Together”: Why Interpreter and Translator Organisations Must Review Their Role in Normalising Outsourcing
This second article in an ongoing investigation builds on a theory of change for the UK translation and interpreting sector. The first article examined the institutional structure of Professional Interpreters for Justice (PI4J) and the tensions between claims of representation, institutional hybridity, and embedded organisational incentives. This article turns to a critical analysis of the…
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The Government Has Admitted the Current Framework “Does Not Prevent Worker Exploitation and Leaves Vulnerable Workers without Core Employment Protections.”
I received a ministerial reply from the Cabinet Office in response to concerns I raised about public supply chains, outsourcing, equality obligations, and precarious labour arrangements affecting interpreters and other workers in publicly funded services. A copy of the correspondence is included at the end of this article. I am very grateful to my MP,…
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10 Concrete Practice-Oriented Changes ITI Can Implement: Moving Beyond Adaptation Toward Labour-Conscious Institutional Framing
This article sets out a series of concrete, practice-oriented changes that the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) could implement in order to engage more directly with the structural labour conditions affecting translators and interpreters. It builds on my earlier article, Theory of Change for the UK Translation and Interpreting Industry, and should be understood…
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Theory of Change for the UK Translation and Interpreting Industry: Repoliticising Labour Precarity and Mapping Responsibility
Abstract This article proposes a theory of change for understanding and addressing persistent low pay and precarity in the translation and interpreting industry through the repoliticisation of translation labour. Building on my previous analyses of translators’ labour conditions, it argues that low pay is structurally produced through the organisation of the translation supply chain. Translation…
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Should Translators Pay to Play “Happy Community” with LSPs While Exploitation and Precarity Go Unaddressed? Urgent Changes Needed to ITI’s Conference
I am writing ahead of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) conference because I believe meaningful change is still possible. My aim is not only to critique ITI, but to contribute to a discussion about what translators and interpreters urgently need from professional institutions at a time of intensifying precarity and labour insecurity, as…
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Is the “Real Value” of ITI Membership Actually Negative? Professionalisation, Risk Transfer, and How Translation Labour Could Be Repoliticised
Like many questions that challenge established assumptions, I am aware this may be an uncomfortable one to ask. My aim in raising it is knowledge creation through a political economy analysis of membership organisations and translators’ labour. This article examines how institutional narratives, incentive structures, and representational arrangements shape what is made visible or invisible…
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Why Translators and Interpreters Are Often Poorly Paid: Corporate Power and Displaced Responsibility
One of the most striking observations from my three years of PhD research into the translation and interpreting industry is how little attention is paid to a basic question: why are translators and interpreters so often underpaid, and who is responsible? Across professional events, academic discussions, and institutional collaborations, these questions remain largely unaddressed. When…
