Translation sociology brings back the notion of quality to centre-stage in translation studies, and at the same time adds to the field’s social relevance. A sociological approach allows us to highlight 'bridge concepts' which connect textual, cognitive and cultural perspectives, and can thus help to unify the discipline. These bridge concepts include the notion of causality; translation practice, discourse and habitus; and translation norm, brief, and strategy. By making explicit the links between different kinds of causality, this approach may even take a few steps towards the goal of consilience: the idea of uniting different branches of knowledge.