Sex Work Labour and Empowerment

<p>This book presents an analysis of the concepts of female empowerment and resilience against violence in the informal entertainment and sex industries.</p><p>Generally the key debates on sex work have centred on arguments proposed by the oppressive and empowerment paradigms. This book moves away from such debates to look widely at the micro issues such as the role of income in the lives of sex workers the significance of peer organisations and networks of women and how resilience is enacted and empowerment experienced. It also uses positive deviancy theory as a useful strategy to bring about notable changes in terms of empowerment and agency for women working in this sector and also for addressing the wider issues of migration HIV/AIDS and violence against women and girls. The focus is on moving beyond a victimisation framework without downplaying the extent of the violence that women in this industry experience. It conceptualises the theories of empowerment and power which have not been tested against women who work in this sector combined with in-depth interviews with women working in the industry as well as academics activists and personnel in the NGO and donor sector. In doing so it informs the reader of the numerous social political and economic factors that structure and sustain the global growth of the industry and analyses the diverse factors that lead many thousands of women and girls around the world to work in this sector.</p><p>The work presents an important contribution to the study of citizenship and rights from a non-Western angle and will be of interest to academics researchers and policymakers across human rights sociology economics and development studies.</p>