1st Edition

Self-Care, Translation Professionalization, and the Translator’s Ethical Agency Ethics of Epimeleia Heautou

By Abderrahman Boukhaffa Copyright 2025
    328 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book draws on an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the impact of codes of ethics as prescribed in translator organizations, proposing alternative ethical pathways grounded in self-care ethics to enhance translators’ symbolic recognition and ethical agency.

    The volume seeks to provide a counterpoint to existing views in translation studies research on ethics by building on work in sociology and philosophical genealogy, particularly Foucault’s notion of Epimeleia Heautou, to establish a framework of self-care ethics. Featuring analyses of various codes of ethics across different professional associations, the book offers a critical examination of the potential impact of codified ethics on translator autonomy and symbolic status and in turn, their broader social and planetary responsibilities within their roles as translators beyond the translation community. In setting out an alternative charter of ethics which promotes a culture of the self within larger institutions and critical pedagogy within translator education programs, the volume charts new directions in emergent debates on ethics in translation practice.

    This book will appeal to scholars in translation and interpreting studies, particularly those interested in ethics and sociological and philosophical approaches within the discipline.

    Contents

     

    Acknowledgements   

    Abbreviations and Acronyms

     

    Introduction

     

    Part 1: Professionalization, Translation Ethics, and Translation in Codified Ethics   

    1. Translation Professionalization and the Sociology of Professions

    2. Translation Ethics in Contemporary Translation Theory  

    3. The Concept of Translation in Codified Ethics    

     

    Part 2: The Translator’s Capital in Codified Ethics         

    4. Basic Tenets of Bourdieu’s Reflexive Sociology  

    5. The Translator’s Forms of Capital in Codified Ethics      

    6.         The Translator’s Capital Conversions           

     

    Part 3: The Translator’s Morality in Codified Ethics      

    7.         Bauman’s Postmodern Morality: Beyond Rational Codification of Ethics  

    8.         The Translator’s Moral Self in Codified Ethics        

    9.         Postmodern Ethics: From Institutionally Restrained Morality of Codes of Ethics to Aporetic Social Responsibility

     

    Part 4: Alternative Ethics   

    10.  Foucault’s Epimeleia Heautou (Self-Care)        

    11. Alternative Ethics in Institutions 

    12.  Transformative Learning Theory for Adult Education in the Service of Ethics of Self-Care   

     

    Conclusions: Challenges and Project Ethicality   

    References    

    Appendices   

    Index

     

     

     

    Biography

    Abderrahman Boukhaffa is a practicing translator. He received his PhD in Translation Studies in 2021 from the School of Translation and Interpretation at the University of Ottawa, Canada.