Field Work/ Sex Work. Some Challenges for the Research on Prostitution

JUSTO VON LURZER, CAROLINA

Pretoria

Workshop; A South-South Dialogue on Sexualities and Politics; 2010

Human Sciences Research Council

I would like to introduce the discussion of some key issues related to research on sex work: 1) The first one is the impact that the debate on sexual slavery versus sex work has on the problem of the agency of women in prostitution. I am interested in discussing the incidence of the variables on which sexual economic exchange is constructed as slavery or work in agency. 3) The second point is related to the claims of the organizations of women in prostitution and sex workers as claims for citizenship that exceed the field of sexualities. I would like to discuss the need to move the focal point of the approaches beyond sexuality. It is by all means inevitable and absolutely necessary to inscribe our work under the field of the research on sexualities. Nevertheless, while prostitution is an activity that involves sexuality, the demands of women in prostitution and sex workers stretch beyond the limits of sexuality issues and sexual rights. I propose to think about the potentialities and limitations of dealing with prostitution (only) through sexuality as well as the biased definitions of sexuality/sexual practices on which the phenomenon is considered (for example some discussions that I believe are stocked at the problem of the border between what is a normal and an abnormal sexual practice. 3) The third point is about the implications of the inscription of the debates on prostitution within the frame of Human Rights. This is intended to think about the ways in which sexual-economic exchange issues have been reshaped-reconstructed under the advance of Human Rights.