Read more
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.
List of contents
Chapter 1 Speaking about sex for sale historically, spatially and politically
Part I: Historically speaking
May-Len Skilbrei and Marlene Spanger
Chapter 2 What’s the problem with prostitution? Shifting problematisations of men and women selling sex
Jens Rydström
Chapter 3 Surveillance of dangerous liaisons through notions of sex and money
Marlene Spanger
Chapter 4 The production and transformation of prostitution spaces: The red light district of Catania
Patrizia Testaí
Part II: Speaking from experience
Chapter 5 Intensive mothering as cultural script: Boundary setting among street-involved women
Kyria Brown, Susan Dewey, and Treena Orchard
Chapter 6 Beyond the client: Exploring men's sexual scripting
Chiara Bertone and Raffaella Ferrero Camoletto
Chapter 7 The Intimate Bazaar of Female Sex Tourism
Marie Bruvik Heinskou
Chapter 8 A ‘continuum of sexual economic exchanges’ or ‘weak agency’? Female migrant sex work in Switzerland
Milena Chimienti and Marylène Lieber
Chapter 9 The Fluidity of a ‘Happy Ending’: Chinese masseuses in the Netherlands
Marie-Louise Janssen
Chapter 10 The 'Normal' and the 'Other' Woman of Prostitution Policy Debates: New Concerns and Solutions
May-Len Skilbrei
Chapter 11 The gender of trafficking, or why can’t men be sex slaves?
Kerwin Kaye
Part III: Speaking about control
Chapter 12 Spatial Justice: how the police craft the city by enforcing law on prostitution
Alexander Kondakov
About the author
May-Len Skilbrei is Professor at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo, Norway. Skilbrei has researched prostitution and prostitution policies since the mid-1990s. In the last ten years she has been involved in research on human trafficking, migration and gender, and has published articles in Crime & Justice, Women & Criminal Justice, Sexuality Research & Social Policy, Ethnos and British Journal of Criminology.
Marlene Spanger is Associate Professor at the Department of Culture and Global Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark. Spanger’s research fields include ethnographic fieldwork and discursive formations within the policy fields of prostitution and human trafficking, transnational intimacies and migration with a special attention to gender, sexual and racial issues.
Summary
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.
Additional text
Digging under the common misperceptions that inform our unease with sex and money, Skilbrei and Spanger’s collection rethinks scholarly theory and provides practical tools for policy makers, scholars and activists in addressing sex for sale
Barbara Brents, Professor of Sociology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
This book is a must read. As a collection, it offers something unique, scholarly and very original. It shows the multiplicity of meanings, all contextually bound, ascribed to prostitution. Essential reading for scholars, campaigners, students and researchers.
Jo Phoenix, Professor in Criminology, Open University, UK
