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Article published In: Translation, Cognition & Behavior
Vol. 4:1 (2021) ► pp.124–146

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Translator autonomy in the age of behavioural data

 | University of Bristol, United Kingdom
 | University of Bristol, United Kingdom
 | Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Spain
Published online: 19 July 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00052.nun
Abstract
Translation behaviour is increasingly tracked to benchmark productivity, to calculate pay or to automate project management decisions. Although in many cases these practices are commonplace, their effects are surprisingly under-researched. This article investigates the consequences of activity tracking in commercial translation. It reports on a series of focus-group interviews involving sixteen translators who used productivity tools to independently monitor their work for a period of sixteen weeks. Our analysis revealed several ways in which the act of tracking activity can itself influence translators’ working practices. We examine translators’ conceptualisations of productivity and discuss the findings as a matter of translator autonomy. The article calls for further awareness of individual and collective consequences of monitoring translation behaviour. Although in some contexts translators found activity tracking to be useful, we argue that client-controlled tracking and translator autonomy are in most cases incompatible.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Translator autonomy
    • 2.2Activity tracking in translation and other uses of behavioural data
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Translators
    • 3.2Data collection
      • 3.2.1Self-monitoring of activity
      • 3.2.2Focus-group interviews
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1How activity tracking affects behaviour
    • 4.2Internal vs external tracking
    • 4.3Invisible tasks
    • 4.4Conceptualising productivity
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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