Marketisation of Professional Boundaries in Musculoskeletal Care: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of Professional Member Association Websites for Physiotherapy, Osteopathy, and Chiropractic in Australia

Physiotherapy, osteopathy, and chiropractic in Australia share overlapping scopes of musculoskeletal practice. This overlap makes presenting their professions’ boundaries to the public central to their ongoing projects of professionalisation. This study aimed to examine how professional member associations for physiotherapy, osteopathy, and chiropractic in Australia use their public websites to discursively construct and promote their professions’ boundaries. We approach this through a multimodal critical discourse analysis informed by Fairclough’s concept of the marketisation of discourses. Our analysis explored how the Australian Physiotherapy Association used discursive expansion by promoting ‘beyond musculoskeletal’ and wellbeing discourses; Osteopathy Australia employed epistemic pluralism to position itself as both traditional and contemporary; the Australian Chiropractors Association emphasised practitioners as experts in ‘spinal health’ through symbolic imagery; and Chiropractic Australia used evidence-based discourse to reinforce a focused scope of musculoskeletal practice. The physiotherapy and osteopathy associations, along with the Australian Chiropractors Association, combined several discourse styles to broaden their professions’ boundaries, while Chiropractic Australia enclosed its brand of chiropractic within evidence-based and musculoskeletal-centred healthcare boundaries. Notably, all four associations drew on discourses of evidence, biomedical authority, professional expertise, care, and altruism. The use of common discursive practices on these websites suggests a tension between professional associations expanding and constricting boundaries to suit market imperatives, with implications for their distinctiveness as professions. These insights may prompt clinicians, professional associations, and policymakers in the field of musculoskeletal healthcare in Australia, and in comparable healthcare systems internationally, to reconceptualise how professional boundaries are constructed and promoted to the public.