The translator as expert — a realistic or an idealistic model? How recent empirical findings fit into existing models of translation

Abstract

By means of four independent questionnaire-based studies we have studied the status of Danish company, agency, freelance and EU translators. A general picture has emerged from our empirical data: translators see themselves as having relatively low status, they consider themselves to be experts, but they do not feel recognized as such. Inspired by Abdallah and Koskinen's (2007) network-based production model of translation (based on Barabási's 2002 network model) we investigate and discuss how this picture, emerging from our empirical studies, fits in with the current theoretical models of translation and the translator. To this end we have also turned to Bourdieu's conceptual framework to reach an understanding of the gap between the translators' self-image as experts and their lack of recognition and their low status. Drawing on Abdallah and Koskinen (2007) we have analyzed the field of translation, its capitals and its habitus. Our data provide empirical support for Abdallah and Koskinen's network production model of translation and through our Bourdieusian analyses we have reached a deeper understanding especially of the symbolic capital which equals power and influence within the narrow field of translation practice, the wider field of the translation business and the superordinate field of business, respectively. This understanding helps us to explain the gap between translators' self-image as experts and their relatively low status and what may come to constitute a breakdown in illusio if the current trends of translation production continue.