Cukur, Leandra: Crowdsourcing at the intersection of efficiency and ethics: A consequentialist analysis of translation platforms (2020-2025)

This PhD thesis investigates the characteristics and workflows of translation platforms that use paid crowdsourcing and algorithms in their task allocation – with the aim of examining possible consequences these platforms have on the translation profession. These consequences are conceptualised in terms of Weber’s notions of formal and substantive rationalisation, allowing to contrast between the platforms’ pursuit of efficiency and translators’ underlying values. In doing so, this thesis proposes a novel theoretical framework for evaluating and weighing such consequences. To compile a rich data set that considers multiple perspectives, a mixed-methods approach is employed, combining a qualitative website analysis, a quantitative survey among translation professionals and qualitative interviews with two platforms owners as well as translators who have experience with translation platforms. The results show that freelance translators’ precarious working conditions could further deteriorate under the increasing influence of translation platforms, especially pertaining to their autonomy and well-being.

Juan Gómez, Blanca: Reception as a process. Raymond Williams’s Marxismo y literatura (1980) in Spanish translation (2020-ongoing)

This PhD thesis develops a model to conceptualise and analyse translation as a reception process. It focuses on translation events in Social Sciences and Humanities – fields which are still under-theorised compared to literary translation. It argues that reception, understood as a social action, is a useful prism for illuminating the contexts, actors, processes and products of translation, and therefore enhances the combined analysis of these entangled components in Translation Studies research.

The proposed reception model consists of four key analytical moments, drawing on genetic criticism, symbolic interactionism and Cultural Studies concepts. The model is then applied to the Spanish translation (1980) of Marxism and literature (1977) by Raymond Williams, one of the founding fathers of British Cultural Studies. This is supported by a bibliographical analysis of all published Spanish translations of Williams’s texts, and an analysis of this specific translation process using a microhistorical and genetic approach to archival material, an interview with the translator Pablo Di Masso, and the published version of the translation and its associated paratexts.

Drabantová, Denisa: Self-concept and social identity in a fansubbing community: a netnographic analysis (working title; 2022-ongoing)

This ongoing PhD project investigates how self-concept and social identity are formed within one fansubbing community and how these constructs shape – and are shaped by – the group’s translation practices. Self-concept may be broadly defined as an individual’s perception, understanding and evaluation of themselves, including beliefs about their abilities, values, goals, loyalties and obligations. In Translation Studies, the term has been used in some studies (e.g., Király 1995; Ehrensberger-Dow & Massey 2013; Hunziker Heeb 2016; Kolb 2021), most often to assess professional translators’ expertise. However, it has not yet been systematically defined in TS literature or sufficiently adapted to its needs. It has also never been applied to translation practices situated outside the translation industry, such as fansubbing.

Social identity theory, first formulated by Henri Tajfel and John Turner in the 1970s, is a social psychological theory building on the premises of self-concept theories (e.g., Gergen 1971) and explaining the formation and dynamics of social groups. While group formation, belonging, and intergroup dynamics are clearly relevant for understanding the functioning of translation communities and their practices, social identity theory has so far not been applied in Translation Studies.

The aim of this PhD project is to develop a discipline-appropriate definition of self-concept, integrate it with the social identity theory, and examine how both are constructed within a specific translation community. To this end, a netnographic study combined with qualitative interviews is being conducted in the largest Czech and Slovak fansubbing community.