A market of care skills: Profiting from professional education and practice
Abstract
Who profits from the commodification of care and how does such accumulation occur? Focusing on the case of the nursing care market, this paper shows how professional schools and local hospitals within source nations like the Philippines profit from nurses seeking the credentials to qualify for jobs overseas. While existing studies show how nursing skills are exploited and undervalued, this paper argues that it is the process of skilling itself that allows for the accumulation of profit, regardless of whether nurses leave their origin countries to work abroad. This study reveals how global care economies are tightly linked to local education markets where different actors profit from the production and certification of care skills.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Healthcare innovation and challenges
Emotional Labor in Professions
Interprofessional Education and Collaboration
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Economy and Society
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 366–386
- Publication date
- 3 April 2026
- Language
- EN