Identity and Status in the Translational Professions: (32 Benjamins Current Topics)

This volume contributes to the emerging research on the social formation of translators and interpreters as specific occupational groups. Despite the rising academic interest in sociological perspectives in Translation Studies, relatively little research has so far been devoted to translators’ social background, status struggles and sense of self. The articles assembled here zoom in on the “groups of individuals” who perform the complex translating and/or interpreting tasks, thereby creating their own space of cultural production. Cutting across varied translatorial and geographical arenas, they reflect a view of the interrelatedness between the macro-level question of professional status and micro-level aspects of practitioners’ identity. Addressing central theoretical issues relating to translators’ habitus and role perception, as well as methodological challenges of using qualitative and quantitative measures, this endeavor also contributes to the critical discourse on translators’ agency and ethics and to questions of reformulating their social role.The contributions to this volume were originally published in Translation and Interpreting Studies 4:2 (2009) and 5:1 (2010).

Table of Contents:
1. Preface, pvii-xiv; 2. Introduction, p1-10; 3. Legal and translational occupations in Spain: Regulation and specialization in jurisdictional struggles (by Monzo, Esther), p11-30; 4. Effectiveness of translator certification as a signaling device: Views from the translator recruiters (by Chan, Andy Lung Jan), p31-48; 5. Conference interpreting: Surveying the profession (by Pochhacker, Franz), p49-64; 6. Occupation or profession: A survey of the translators' world (by Katan, David), p65-88; 7. Attitudes to role, status and professional identity in interpreters and translators with Chinese in Shanghai and Taipei (by Setton, Robin), p89-118; 8. Conference interpreters and their self-representation: A worldwide webbased survey (by Zwischenberger, Cornelia), p119-134; 9. Habitus and self-image of native literary author-translators in diglossic societies (by Meylaerts, Reine), p135-154; 10. The people behind the words: Professional profiles and activity patterns of translators of Arabic literature into Hebrew (1896-2009) (by Amit-Kochavi, Hannah), p155-172; 11. Revised translations, revised identities: (Auto)biographical contextualization of translation (by Baibikov, Elena), p173-188; 12. Conference interpreters and their perception of culture: From the narratives of Japanese pioneers (by Torikai, Kumiko), p189-208; 13. Images of the court interpreter: Professional identity, role definition and self-image (by Morris, Ruth), p209-230; 14. A professional ideology in the making: Bilingual youngsters interpreting for their communities and the notion of (no) choice (by Angelelli, Claudia V.), p231-246; 15. "Boundary work" as a concept for studying professionalization processes in the interpreting field (by Grbic, Nadja), p247-262; 16. The task of the interpreter in the struggle of the other for empowerment: Mythical utopia or sine qua non of professionalism? (by Bahadir, Sebnem), p263-278; 17. Index, p279-282

Review :
The contributions in this carefully edited and eminently readable volume (with an excellent and useful index) present a wealth of empirical material as well as a great deal of stimulating conceptual work. The volume is indispensable reading for Translation Studies scholars interested in the sociology of professions and it offers a number of insights with respect to the sociology of translation in general. It is, moreover, highly recommended to anyone trying to keep up with the not-so-mechanic mechanisms and driving forces underlying differentiation processes within our field of study and the “effets de théorie” (Bourdieu 1981) informing them.