ABSTRACT

The problem of prostitution, sex work or sex for sale can often be misunderstood, if we do not take into consideration its spatial, temporal and political context.

Understanding Sex for Sale aims to understand how prostitution, sex work or sex for sale are delineated, contested and understood in different spaces, places and times; with a particular focus on identifying how the relation between sex and money is interpreted and enacted. Divided into three parts, this interdisciplinary volume offers contributions that discuss ongoing theoretical issues and analytical challenges. Some chapters focus on how prostitution, sex work, or sex for sale have been regulated by the authorities and on the understandings that regulations are built upon. Other chapters investigate the experiences of sex workers and sex buyers, examining how these actors adjust to or resist the categorisation processes, control and stigma they are subjected to. Finally, a third group of chapters discuss contemporary definitional issues produced by various actors tasked with controlling prostitution or offering social services to its participants.

Advancing and placing analytical tools at the forefront of the discussion, Understanding Sex for Sale appeals to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as researchers interested in fields such as, sociology, anthropology, criminology, history, human geography and gender studies.

part I|61 pages

Historically speaking

chapter 2|19 pages

What’s the problem with prostitution?

20Shifting problematisations of men and women selling sex

chapter 4|21 pages

The production and transformation of prostitution spaces

The red-light district of Catania

part II|80 pages

Speaking from experience

chapter 5|16 pages

Intensive mothering as cultural script

81Boundary setting among street-involved women

chapter 8|16 pages

A ‘continuum of sexual economic exchanges’ or ‘weak agency’?

Female migrant sex work in Switzerland

chapter 9|17 pages

The fluidity of a ‘happy ending’

Chinese masseuses in the Netherlands

part III|56 pages

Speaking about control

chapter 10|20 pages

The ‘normal’ and the ‘other’ woman of prostitution policy debates

161New concerns and solutions

chapter 12|16 pages

Spatial justice

How the police craft the city by enforcing law on prostitution