Understanding new hybrid professions: Bourdieu,illusioand the case of public service interpreters

Abstract

Public spending reductions across the advanced capitalist world are creating new professions which have a 'hybrid' status and/or role. However, research on professional learning has paid little attention to them. This qualitative study of one such profession, public service interpreting (PSI), addresses that lacuna. The paper focuses on interpreters' interactions with other professionals and with migrants using public services. It evokes Bourdieu's important but neglected concept of illusio -the extent to which players invest commitment in the stakes of a field -to frame the analysis. This highlights the lack of autonomy for PSI, interpreters' own ambiguous illusio, and their conflicts with the illusio of more powerful professions with which they must work. We conclude that there is a need for more research on the power relations between new hybrid professions and established professions, and that Bourdieu's illusio is a potent analytical concept for this task.

Playing the white man’s tune: inclusion in elite classical music education

“…In younger fields, for example the Public Service Interpreters in Colley and Guéry (2015), the illusio (and therefore the belief it promotes) is less powerful and open to manipulation by agents within the field. However, in more mature fields such as English Schooling (Griffiths, 2018) resistance is more difficult.…”

More than words can say: Why health and social care policy makers should reconsider their position on informal interpreters

“…Finally, at the top of the pyramid, forming the smallest part of the position, is the 'advocate' position, where interpreters feel obligated move outside of their interpreting task due to ethical challenges that arise requiring them to advocate for the interpretee. More recently Colley and Guéry (2015) have discussed the identity challenges this complex role raises for public service interpreters.…”

Transiciones e hibridaciones en el profesionalismo docente: entre tecnologías de gobierno y gobernanza en espacios neoliberalizados

“…Los sistemas de provisión pública nunca se han gobernado de una forma pura, sino que se han nutrido de la interacción de principios políticos, objetivos, valores o estructuras, que incorporan pautas culturales y sociales históricamente construidas (Kuhlmann & Saks, 2008). Así, en los actuales contextos complejos y dinámicos, las profesionales forman roles híbridos (Noordrefraf, 2007;Colley & Guéry, 2015) debido a la creciente permeabilidad entre los límites de sectores, organizaciones, prácticas o conocimiento, que implica la formación de nuevas perspectivas de trabajo. Sin embargo, en lugar de una inestable combinación de principios profesionales y organizacionales (Blomgren & Waks, 2015), se observa que la organización se convierte en una parte normal del trabajo profesional que entrelaza ambos principios en las prácticas cotidianas.…”