[Paper Review] A technology-oriented mapping of the language and translation industry: Analysing stakeholder values and their potential implication for translation pedagogy

María Isabel Rivas Ginel, Janiça Hackenbuchner+3 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Mar 12, 2026

Translation Studies and Practices0 citations

TL;DR

The paper analyzes how value is constructed in an automated language and translation industry by interviewing 29 stakeholders, highlighting how efficiency, human expertise, and adaptability shape translational work and pedagogy.

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how value is constructed and negotiated in today's increasingly automated language and translation industry. Drawing on interview data from twenty-nine industry stakeholders collected within the LT-LiDER project, the study analyses how human value, technological value, efficiency, and adaptability are articulated across different professional roles. Using Chesterman's framework of translation ethics and associated values as an analytical lens, the paper shows that efficiency-oriented technological values aligned with the ethics of service have become baseline expectations in automated production environments, where speed, scalability, and deliverability dominate evaluation criteria. At the same time, human value is not displaced but repositioned, emerging primarily through expertise, oversight, accountability, and contextual judgment embedded within technology-mediated workflows. A central finding is the prominence of adaptability as a mediating value linking human and technological domains. Adaptability is constructed as a core professional requirement, reflecting expectations that translators continuously adjust their skills, roles, and identities in response to evolving tools and organisational demands. The paper argues that automation reshapes rather than replaces translation value, creating an interdependent configuration in which technological efficiency enables human communicative work.

Motivation & Objective

• Investigate how human value, technological value, efficiency, and adaptability are articulated across industry roles.
• Examine how Chesterman's translation ethics framework applies to current automated production environments.
• Explore how automation reshapes, rather than replaces, translation value and professional identities.

Proposed method

• Qualitative analysis of interview data from twenty-nine industry stakeholders collected within the LT-LiDER project.
• Thematic analysis using Chesterman's framework of translation ethics to identify values.
• Comparison of value articulation across different professional roles in technology-mediated workflows.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How are human value, technological value, efficiency, and adaptability articulated across industry stakeholders?
• RQ2 In what ways does automation influence ethical considerations and professional judgments in translation?
• RQ3 What role does adaptability play in connecting human and technological domains within translation work?
• RQ4 How does automation reshape professional identities and workflows in the language and translation industry?

Key findings

• Efficiency-oriented technological values aligned with the ethics of service have become baseline expectations in automated production environments.
• Human value is not displaced but repositioned, emerging through expertise, oversight, accountability, and contextual judgment embedded in technology-mediated workflows.
• Adaptability is a central mediating value linking human and technological domains and is a core professional requirement.
• Automation reshapes rather than replaces translation value, creating an interdependent configuration where technological efficiency enables human communicative work.