Abstract: Prostitution is a gendered, sexualized, and racialized labor system, one that typically involves the exchange of sexual services for money, goods, or other benefits. Sex work encompasses different types of intimate arrangements that blur the boundaries between erotic, emotional, and economic labor. Sex work is also part of an industry and commercial market that is global in reach and diverse in its spatial, legal, and occupational organization. This article investigates the multifaceted dimensions of prostitution and sex work in a twenty-first century context. In it, we explore how sex work as an intimate form of labor has evolved alongside other social and economic shifts, such as technology innovations and the growth of neoliberal globalization. We further examine the divergent contexts in which sex work takes place, how scholars have differentially approached its study and how states' employment of disparate regulatory strategies and antiprostitution policies have, in many instances, stigmatized sex workers.
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 5
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