B2B in translation studies: Business to business, or back to basics?

This article adopts a meta-theoretical and meta-academic perspective. It takes a critical look at how academic research in translation studies (as in other fields) is increasingly dominated by market forces as the world of higher education is drawn more and more into the sphere of neoliberal action and ideology. The paper acknowledges the positive effects of competitive pressures on scholarship-including increased research output, greater innovation and more efficient communication-but it also considers their adverse effects. More specifically, it is argued that the relentless pressure to innovate is having a negative impact on the intellectual rigour of our research by leading to needless fragmentation and ultimately undermining quality-control mechanisms. The paper concludes by making a number of recommendations to counterbalance the forces of the market.