How much would you like to pay? Reframing and expanding the notion of translation quality through crowdsourcing and volunteer approaches

Abstract

This paper examines the reconceptualization of translation quality since the emergence of new paid and volunteer crowdsourcing approaches both in the industry and in Translation Studies (TS). It explores how economic considerations have led to a dynamic conceptualization of translation quality. Its main focus is the impact of innovative crowdsourcing workflows and practices that currently offer on free and paid models different quality tiers. In this process, translation quality has been reconceptualized from a desirable, static and high cost commodity that can be certified through international standards, to a new dynamic construct in which the fitness for purpose of the translation product, rather than quality, is negotiated by different actors and through a wide range of process-based factors that directly correlate to different prices charged for the translation. The evolution of quality from static to dynamic approaches will be explored. The article will end with a discussion on whether the expansion of the notion of translation quality can help consolidate the so-called economic turn in the discipline.

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