Defining ‘labour’ and ‘work’ on translation crowdsourcing platforms via motivational and affective theory: A theoretical-conceptual framework

Cornelia Zwischenberger
University of Vienna

To date, relatively little effort has been put into establishing clear definitions of ‘labour’ and ‘work’ in Translation Studies. The two concepts are, however, gaining more attention in the context of the precarisation of the translation profession brought about by neural machine translation specifically and (generative) artificial intelligence more generally. There is no better illustration of this precarisation than the platforms offering paid translation crowdsourcing and using machine translation and AI. This article examines whether translators working on these platforms consider these activities labour or work based on their motivation and affective states. Its key objective is to develop a theoretical-conceptual framework for such an investigation and to attempt to apply that framework to the few existing empirical studies undertaken among translators working in the translation platform industry.

Publication history

Date received: 1 April 2026

Date accepted: 12 June 2026

Table of contents

Translation Studies has only recently started to consider the work- and labour-related dimensions of translation and interpreting. Like cultural, communication and media studies, it too had hitherto neglected the question, or rather concept, of labour and failed to investigate the structural labour conditions of translators and interpreters (Fuchs 2014). The recent endeavour to put labour under the radar of Translation Studies researchers may be traced back to the increasing precarisation of translation and interpreting and their dislocation to the digital space and onto platforms — a development that raises vital questions around the issue of labour and undermines the romanticising of translators as creative and artistic actors untouched by capitalist forces and pressures (Zwischenberger and Alfer 2022; Giustini 2024).

Funding

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Vienna.

References

Ahmed, Sara
2004 “Affective Economies.” Social Text 22 (2): 117–139. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andersson, Marie-Louise
1992 “The Meaning of Work and Job.” International Journal of Value-Based Management 5 (1): 89–106. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah
[1958] 1998 The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baard, Paul P., Edward L. Deci, and Richard M. Ryan
2004 “Intrinsic Need Satisfaction: A Motivational Basis of Performance and Well-Being in Two Work Settings.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 34 (10): 2045–2068. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bednárová-Gibová, Klaudia
2020 “Organizational Ergonomics of Translation as a Powerful Predictor of Translators’ Happiness at Work?” Perspectives 29 (3): 391–406. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
BLEND
2026 “BLEND’s Quality Standards.” https://​www​.getblend​.com​/quality​-standards
Butler, Judith
2004 Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005 Giving an Account of Oneself. New York: Fordham University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cukur, Leandra
2024 “Towards an Ethical Framework for Evaluating Paid Translation Crowdsourcing and Its Consequences.” The Translator 30 (1): 47–62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2025 Auswirkungen des bezahlten Crowdsourcings auf den Translationsberuf: Eine konsequentialistische Analyse von Übersetzungsplattformen [Effects of paid crowdsourcing on the translation profession: A consequentialist analysis of translation platforms]. PhD diss. University of Vienna.
Dam, Helle V., and Karen Korning Zethsen
2016 “ ‘I Think It Is a Wonderful Job’: On the Solidity of the Translation Profession.” The Journal of Specialised Translation 25: 174–187. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deci, Edward L., James P. Connell, and Richard M. Ryan
1989 “Self-Determination in a Work Organization.” Journal of Applied Psychology 74 (4): 580–590. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deci, Edward L., and Richard M. Ryan
1985 Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000 “The ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior.” Psychological Inquiry 11 (4): 227–268. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008 “Self-Determination Theory: A Macrotheory of Human Motivation, Development, and Health.” Canadian Psychology 49 (3): 182–185. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2014 “Autonomy and Need Satisfaction in Close Relationships: Relationships Motivation Theory.” In Human Motivation and Interpersonal Relationships: Theory, Research, and Applications, edited by Netta Weinstein, 53–73. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dombek, Magdalena
2014 A Study into the Motivations of Internet Users Contributing to Translation Crowdsourcing: The Case of Polish Facebook User-Translators. PhD diss. Dublin City University.
Fırat, Gökhan
2021 “Uberization of Translation: Impacts on Working Conditions.” The Journal of Internationalization and Localization 8 (1): 48–75. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fuchs, Christian
2014 Digital Labour and Karl Marx. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fuchs, Christian, and Sebastian Sevignani
2013 “What Is Digital Labour? What Is Digital Work? What’s Their Difference? And Why Do these Questions Matter for Understanding Social Media?” tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society 11 (2): 237–293. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garcia, Ignacio
2015 “Cloud Marketplaces: Procurement of Translators in the Age of Social Media.” The Journal of Specialised Translation 23: 18–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2017 “Translating in the Cloud Age: Online Marketplaces.” Hermes 56: 59–70.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gentile, Paola
2014 “The Conflict Between the Interpreter’s Role and Professional Status: A Sociological Perspective.” In (Re)Visiting Ethics and Ideology in Situations of Conflict, edited by Carmen Valero-Garcés, 195–204. Madrid: Universidad de Alcalá.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giustini, Deborah
2024 “ ‘You Can Book an Interpreter the Same Way You Order Your Uber’: (Re)Interpreting Work and Digital Labour Platforms.” Perspectives 32 (3): 441–459. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gough, Joanna, and Özlem Temizöz
2023 “Love It, Hate It, Tolerate It: Translators’ Experiences with Concurrent Translation on Collaborative Platforms.” Cultus 16: 262–291.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gough, Joanna, Özlem Temizöz, Graham Hieke, and Leonardo Zilio
2023 “Concurrent Translation on Collaborative Platforms.” Translation Spaces 12 (1): 45–73. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harding, Nancy
2013 On Being at Work: The Social Construction of the Employee. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hardt, Michael, and Antonio Negri
2004 Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. New York: The Penguin Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A.
2021 “The Impact of Crowdsourcing and Online Collaboration in Professional Translation: Charting the Future of Translation?” Babel 67 (4): 395–417. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2024 “Of Professionals, Non-Professionals and Everything in Between: Redefining the Notion of the ‘Translator’ in the Crowdsourcing Era.” The Translator 30 (1): 29–46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kalleberg, Arne
2011 Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s–2000s. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koskinen, Kaisa
2020 Translation and Affect: Essays on Sticky Affects and Translational Affective Labour. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lambert, Joseph, and Callum Walker
2024 “Thriving or Surviving: Motivation, Satisfaction, and Existential Sustainability in the Translation Profession.” Mikael. Finnish Journal of Translation and Interpreting Studies 17 (1): 89–104. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marx, Karl
1844 “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844.” In Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and the Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx, 13–168. Translator: Martin Milligan. Amherst: Prometheus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1867  Das Kapital: Kritik der politischen Oekonomie [Capital: Critique of political economy]. Band 1: Der Produktionsprozess des Kapitalismus [Volume 1: The process of capitalist production]. Hamburg: Otto Meissner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Massumi, Brian
2002 Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham: Duke University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moorkens, Joss
2020 “ ‘A Tiny Cog in a Large Machine’: Digital Taylorism in the Translation Industry.” Translation Spaces 9 (1): 12–34. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olafsen, Anja H., Hallgeir Halvari, Jacques Forest, and Edward L. Deci
2015 “Show Them the Money? The Role of Pay, Managerial Need Support, and Justice in a Self-Determination Theory Model of Intrinsic Work Motivation.” Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 56 (4): 447–457. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruokonen, Minna, and Elin Svahn
2025 “Translators’ Job Satisfaction: A Theoretical and Methodological Exploration.” Babel 72 (1): 97–123. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci
2000 “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions.” Contemporary Educational Psychology 25 (1): 54–67. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sakamoto, Akiko
2018 “Disruption in Translator–Client Matching: Paid Crowdsourcing Platforms vs Human Project Managers.” Revista Tradumàtica 16: 85–94.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shouse, Eric
2005 “Feeling, Emotion, Affect.” M/C Journal 8 (6). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwischenberger, Cornelia
2022 “Online Collaborative Translation: Its Ethical, Social and Conceptual Conditions and Consequences.” Perspectives 30 (1): 1–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2023 “Online Collaborative Translation: Probing Its Suitability as a Meta-Concept and Its Exploitative Potential Linked to Labour/Work.” In Translaboration in Analogue and Digital Practice, edited by Cornelia Zwischenberger and Alexa Alfer, 213–241. Berlin: Frank & Timme. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2024 “On Categorising Online Collaborative Translation and the Consequences for the Field of Research.” The Translator 30 (1): 13–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwischenberger, Cornelia, and Alexa Alfer
2022 “Translaboration: Translation and Labour,” Translation in Society 1 (2): 200–223. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar

Address for correspondence

Cornelia Zwischenberger

Center for Translation Studies

University of Vienna

1190 VIENNA

Austria

[email protected]
ORCiD logo with linkhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4897-4037
 
Authentication
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-dark jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold-light jbe-platform.quadraat-sans-bold prag Twitter_Logo_Blue