Conference Interpreting as a Social Practice: A Bourdieusian Theoretical Approach

The objective of this paper is to theoretically explore conference interpreting as a social practice, specifically employing Bourdieu’s theory of practice and drawing on my application of his notions of field, habitus, and capital (Bourdieu, 1977; 1990b) reinforced by the voices of the second cultural turn in sociology. It proposes a theoretical framework with which to analyse conference interpreting as a socially-situated activity and interpreters as agents endowed with a specific quantity of resources and competences uniquely acquired in particular contexts of training and enacted with agency in the context of interpreting performances. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical rationale of sociological research in interpreting to posit the construction of its object as a whole and fill the gap deriving from its partial conceptualization. On this basis, it calls for future empirical works and methodological debates in the flourishing field of the sociology of interpreting