Affects in On-Demand Mobile App Interpreting in Public Service Settings: Interpreters’ Experiences

Abstract

This article investigates the affects public service interpreters experience when they work remotely with the help of technology, that is, when they interpret using mobile interpreting apps. Affects are an inherent part of the public service interpreters’ work. Their work is characterized by affective labor consisting of sensing and conveying others’ affects and, in this manner, affecting others as well as being affected themselves. During on-demand mobile interpreting, the contact between interpreter and the primary participants is formed through a technological solution, a mobile interpreting app. Based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with twenty-one public service interpreters working through mobile interpreting apps, this study analyzed the on-demand interpreters’ affects and affective labor before, during, and after an on-demand interpreting assignment. The reported affects were determined to be caused by technology, the primary parties, the content of the assignment, the interpreter’s professional performance, and the current interpreting market system.