TY - JOUR ID - 114631 TI - The Ethics of Volunteerism in Translation: Translators without Borders and the Platform Economy JO - Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Translation Studies JA - EFL LA - en SN - AU - Piróth, Attila AU - Baker, Mona AD - Independent Scholar AD - Professor Emeritus of Translation Studies, Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester, UK Y1 - 2020 PY - 2020 VL - 5 IS - 3 SP - 1 EP - 30 KW - charity KW - Solidarity KW - Crowdsourcing KW - Digital Labour KW - Platform Economy KW - Solidarités International KW - Translators without Borders KW - Volunteerism DO - 10.22034/efl.2020.114631 N2 - Volunteerism is widespread in the translation sector, but the practices associated with it and its ethical import have so far received very little critical attention. This article critiques one of the most high profile beneficiaries of volunteer translation, Translators without Borders, which presents itself as a charity but operates as a corporate concern, with a leadership composed primarily of major industry players. TWB adopts an asset-centred, platform-based, top-down model that offers massive scaling possibilities and reflects a corporate vision of the translation community. It provides a clear example of the wider shift from artisanal to industrial to platform economy as it plays out in the translation field. To demonstrate the potential for volunteer translation to be situated within a more solidary and equitable context and provide an example of one possible alternative to the platform-based paradigm, we discuss the practices of another humanitarian NGO, Solidarités International, which runs a paid internship programme and adopts a small-scale, peer-based, horizontal model with a strong focus on early-career translators. We ask who ultimately benefits from the exploitation of free labour and focus on identifying practices that enhance or jeopardize the professionalization and stature of the translators involved. We further discuss how the linguistic assets produced by volunteer translators can generate saleable intellectual property and how this can lead to conflicts of interest and support patterns of inequality in the wider social context. UR - https://efl.shbu.ac.ir/article_114631.html L1 - https://efl.shbu.ac.ir/article_114631_49e17f0571b8dc4d642b56ab451ce081.pdf ER -