Translation and the field of publishing

A sociological approach to translation needs to take into account publishers, whose role in the international circulation of books is crucial. This paper focuses on the contribution of Bourdieu's economy of symbolic goods and field theory to the sociology of translation. The first section introduces Bourdieu's article “A conservative revolution in publishing” and more broadly his analysis of publishing. In the second section, I propose three theoretical and methodological directions for enlarging Bourdieu's model to a global sociological analysis of the circulation of books in translation: firstly a displacement from the national to the global market of translation; secondly a focus on publisher's strategy and booklist; and thirdly reception.