Constructing and transforming the 'creative professional': digital disruption and creative agency in the UK language industry

Although a growing body of research has highlighted the significance of creative labour in post-industrial societies, both as a source of economic prosperity and as a site of precarity, the transformative role played by 'disruptive' digital technologies in creative practice remains under-researched. One creative field in which digital innovations have had a particularly transformative influence is the language industry. In recent years, the labour of creative professionals such as translators, interpreters and project managers in this industry has become increasingly engaged in a complex interplay with digital technologies such as computer-assisted translation and terminology management tools, which are designed, marketed and implemented by creative professionals working at the interfaces between the language services field and the fields of computer programming and computer consultancy. Moreover, digital innovations in communication technologies and machine translation have led to the emergence of new business models based on outsourcing, crowdsourcing and automation. In response to the opportunities and risks that these developments entail, professional roles in this industry are changing and creative professionals are being encouraged to adapt to this transformational labour environment by developing new competences. This study will investigate the relationship between creative labour and digital technologies in the UK language industry to understand how digital innovations and the associated business models and imperatives for new professional roles and competences affect creative professionals' working practices in this industry. The research will be based on the analysis of interviews with creative professionals from across the UK language industry as well as the analysis of documentary sources. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of practice and critical discourse studies, the study will develop a sociological model of current and emergent professional practice through an examination of discourses and practices within the UK language industry and at its interfaces with the creative fields of computer programming and computer consultancy. In so doing, the study aims to explain how and why language industry professionals interact with digital technologies in productive and counterproductive ways and thereby contribute to a sociologically informed understanding of the drivers of productivity in the UK language industry and wider creative economy.