Tag: technology
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Who Benefits When Professional and Commercial Interests Align—and Celebrate Together?
The Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) reposted on their LinkedIn page a celebratory post by the Association of Translation Companies (ATC), the interest group representing translation companies, often referred to as language service providers (LSPs). The accompanying imagery places the logos of both organisations together, symbolically presenting them as partners in a shared journey…
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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 Don’t Translators Just Get More Direct Clients?
One of the most common responses from professional organisations to concerns about declining rates and deteriorating working conditions is to advise translators to “get more direct clients.” But is this sound advice, and is it free from contradictory institutional incentives? As part of my ongoing work on re-politicising translation labour and developing a theory of…
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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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Should university translation departments belong to the same club as interest groups
This critique reflects the author’s independent analysis and should not be understood as representing any institutional position. It is not connected to, commissioned by, or endorsed by the University at which the author is currently completing doctoral studies. My interest in this question arises from a broader concern about knowledge creation, academic independence, and the…
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Who Authorised You to Speak for Translators? Access to Work, Power, and Representation in Translation and Interpreting
Translation and interpreting organisations frequently claim to represent translators and interpreters. They issue policy statements, publish position papers, respond to government consultations, and engage in “collaboration” on behalf of the profession. Yet a basic question is rarely asked: How do these organisations know that the positions they advance actually reflect what translators and interpreters want—or…
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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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Repoliticising Institutional Hybridity and Governmentality: Towards Meaningful Change in Labour Representation by Professional Interpreters for Justice
In this work, I build on my proposed theory of change for the translation and interpreting sector. It examines the structure and role of the umbrella organisation Professional Interpreters for Justice (PI4J) within outsourced public service interpreting, as part of a broader effort to repoliticise interpreting and translation labour and to analyse the structural organisation…
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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. The response was issued following my open…
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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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