Volunteer Translation and Altruism in the Context of a Nineteenth-Century Scientific Journal

Abstract

This paper constitutes a first attempt to theorize volunteer translation using behavioural economic models of altruism. It applies the notions of pure and impure altruism to the study of a nineteenth-century journal of scientific translations, Scientific Memoirs. Volunteer translating and editing activities were instrumental in ensuring the commercial survival of that periodical over a 15-year period. A range of motivations may be posited for the volunteer work carried out, from the purely altruistic wish to expand scientific knowledge to motivations which could be linked to a sense of satisfaction (warm glow) or enhancement of personal, professional or social standing. Differences can be observed in the utility likely to have been derived from their volunteer activities by men of science and women translators, and an insight is offered into how volunteer contributions were encouraged and managed by the journal’s editor, Richard Taylor. By drawing on research on altruism and volunteering undertaken by disciplines other than translation studies, the paper offers a fruitful starting point for further research on volunteer translation and interpreting in both present-day and historical settings.