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Translation Spaces: Online-First Articles

Bad business practices in the language services industry

ORCID logo | Pablo de Olavide University

The language services industry has enjoyed consistent economic growth over the past 15 years, yet not all participants have reaped its benefits. Individual language professionals have faced persistently low rates of pay, a lack of social benefits, and reduced job security. This predicament has been exacerbated by disruptions brought by technologies such as machine translation and artificial intelligence, and the questionable business practices of language services providers.

Existing research primarily focuses on economic and technological aspects, overlooking the experiences of linguists. This article seeks to broaden this area of study by compiling a comprehensive list of the bad business practices that individual practitioners experience. A survey of 682 freelance translators provides the foundation, yielding a catalogue of 17 detrimental practices along with their prevalence rates. The article also outlines proposals for addressing these issues and identifies potential avenues for future research in this domain.

Keywords: language industry studies, working conditions, professional translation, economics of translation, technology in translation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The language services industry and the evolution of working conditions for professionals
  • 3.The role of technology in the language services industry
  • 4.Objectives and methodology
  • 5.Results of the survey
    • 5.1Demographics
    • 5.2Professional evolution up to date
    • 5.3Bad practices related to economic issues
    • 5.4Bad practices related to technology
    • 5.5Bad practices related to other issues
    • 5.6Future perspectives
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Note
  • Data availability statement
  • Author queries
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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