ABSTRACT
While translation studies has become increasingly sociological in its methodological and conceptual focus, translation technology is only rarely at the forefront of such studies. This chapter looks beyond Bourdieusian approaches to translation in fields of literary production to draw conceptual inspiration from the sociology of technology. By introducing key notions from the social construction of technology, and key concerns of recent studies on translation technologies, the chapter identifies a potential trajectory for future sociological research on translation technology. As in other areas of social life, our understanding could be significantly enhanced by examining how translation technologies are inscribed with hegemonic values and by analysing the socio-economic and political conditions and configurations that bring about the technologies and normalize them. The widespread deployment of machine translation technology also requires us to examine the contexts of translation technology design and use, in professional workplaces of translators but also beyond them. An emerging sociology of translation technology may, in turn, lead to revisions of traditional conceptualizations of translation, to account for the material, embodied and collective dimensions of both translation and technology, as well for their construction, meanings and impacts in specific cultural and socio-economic contexts.
