ABSTRACT
The author outlines the fieldwork and data collection methodologies, methods designed to offset and overcome the ethical and empirical difficulties of conducting research on, and with, clandestine and stigmatised groups. Interviews came to cover broad themes of biography and identity; perception and understanding; levels and spaces; organisations and networks; service provision; and legislation and the authorities, themes that had arisen in his secondary research, pilot research in 2008 and during his PhD fieldwork. The emotional and psychological toll of research should not be underestimated. Reflexivity and reflection is important where preoccupation with one's own emotion can serve to distort research and respondent's voices. Much research has spoken of sex workers as passive objects, undermining their agency and self-determination and sidelining their voices. The author sheds some light on the characteristics of at least elements of sex work in Sweden.
