“Boundary work” as a concept for studying professionalization processes in the interpreting field

Grbić, Nadja

doi:10.1075/tis.5.1.07grb

Article published In: Profession, Identity and Status: Translators and Interpreters as an Occupational Group: Part II: Questions of role and identity
Edited by Rakefet Sela-Sheffy and Miriam Shlesinger †
[Translation and Interpreting Studies 5:1] 2010
► pp. 109–123

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“Boundary work” as a concept for studying professionalization processes in the interpreting field

Nadja Grbić

Published online: 28 April 2010

https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.5.1.07grb

“Boundary work” is a concept that was introduced by Thomas Gieryn in the early 1980s in order to study the construction of differences between “us” and “them.” Although it was used in the first instance to study the rhetorical construction of differences between science and non-science, boundary theories have been further developed since then and are now used in various disciplines to focus on a range of topics, including the construction of boundaries between profession and non-profession. In this article I will present the concept of boundary work and outline a research project I have launched to examine the construction of sign language interpreters as an occupational group in Austria.

Keywords: boundary work, classification systems, professionalization, sign language interpreting

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