A Web of Care

Using the healthcare industry as a site of study, this project aims to uncover the conditions in which particular configurations of language proficiency and speakers become desired commodities, as the demands of globally mobile patients are managed, the needs of migrant patients are accommodated and the linguistic, symbolic and cultural capitals of healthcare workers are regulated and exchanged. This is based on the assumption that the transnational movements of patients and workers fundamentally change the role and value of languages in the healthcare marketplace, raising new questions about the management of language under current political economic conditions.