Embedded Strangers in One’s Own Job? Freelance Interpreters’ Invisible Work: A Practice Theory Approach

Abstract

This article investigates invisible work, as voiced by professionals in the interpreting sector in the UK. Informed by a practice theory approach alongside the sociology of invisible work, it re-frames invisibility as enacted according to the elements that organise and motivate work in terms of purposeful, normative and skilful actions. Drawing on a qualitative dataset of 20 observations and 46 interviews with interpreters, the article conceives invisibility as a functional labour logic in which compliance and resistance to being unseen are the twofold cornerstone of professionalism but also of devaluation. As a freelance workforce, interpreters face contradictions between deontological and stakeholders’ expectations of invisibility, and the individual need of displaying an expert role for securing work continuity. This article contributes to social practice and invisible work literature by uncovering the performative interrelation of the work dynamics which demand a negotiation of hidden/visible status.