Translations|Translators as Adaptive Experts in a Flat World: From Globalization 1.0 to Globalization 4.0?

Vanessa Enríquez Raído

Abstract


Professional translators are highly multitasking agents whose job requires advanced language skills, advanced information literacy, and great technological and instrumental competence. Today they operate in and for an ever more technologized society, within a complex, competitive system of client and user expectations, tools, and new forms of organization and work conditions. This article explores the main industry-level, technological and social developments that have forced many translators to further resituate their practice as co-constructors of knowledge and co-communicators in today’s media landscape. It argues that despite the challenges of powerful automatic implementation and the upsurge of volunteer crowdsourcers, professional translators will continue to adapt to evolving work conditions and emerging phenomena, moving the traditional boundaries of the practice and discipline of translation.


Keywords


professional translation, crowdsourcing, volunteer translation, electronic tools, translation automation technologies, statistical machine translation, knowledge economy, cloud marketplaces, global social media

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