The good life? Exploring human capital sustainability among UK freelance translators

Abstract

Despite healthy growth in the global language services industry, there have been increasing concerns over the state and sustainability of the translation industry. In this article, we interrogate the human capital sustainability of UK-based freelance translation, shifting the focus of discussions from technology to translator wellbeing. We define wellbeing in the context of translation as a balance between social, physical, and psychological resources and challenges and build upon prior, related conceptual explorations in the area. Using data from a UK-based survey of 209 freelance translators and three focus groups, we empirically assess translator wellbeing via self-reported narratives of belonging, esteem, and self-actualisation. Our findings reveal considerable professional pride and high intrinsic fulfilment alongside a fractured sense of community, low perceived public status, and restricted career progression. These tensions confirm a “motivation-satisfaction paradox” in which translators attain self-actualisation despite deficits in lower-order needs, and expose vulnerabilities in the industry’s social and psychological resource base. We argue that addressing these imbalances is essential to retaining talent and safeguarding longer-term industry viability, calling for a collective duty of care alongside individual practices of self-care to enshrine translator wellbeing as the ethical foundation of sustainable development.