ABSTRACT
Sex work research has historically been grounded in researchers’ social constructions of sex work rather than the expressed day-to-day priorities of sex workers (Vanwesenbeeck, 2001). In the case of ‘migrant sex workers’, research agendas have focused primarily on trafficking for the purposes of prostitution (Agustín, 2006; Wong, Holroyd, Gray & Ling, 2006). The expressed concerns of sex workers such as police violence and the impact of stigma have historically received less attention from researchers and policymakers (Vanwesenbeeck, 2001). However, this is changing with sex workers’ rights organisations producing research (e.g. RATS-W & Empower Foundation, 2012; Bowen, 2006) and as allied scholars undertake research that reflects sex workers’ perspectives and concerns (e.g. Kempadoo & Doezema, 1998; Sanders, 2005; Shaver, 2005). Therefore, power, researcher identity, trust and reciprocity are key methodological concerns in any research involving a stigmatised and often criminalised group, such as sex workers. Any sex work research occurs within the context of an exploitative history of research on sex workers, researchers’ shifting social locations in the field and sex worker activist calls for greater research accountability through sex worker involvement and reciprocity.
