IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v29y2024i1p137-153.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trajectories of Vulnerability and Resistance Among Independent Indoor Sex Workers During Economic Decline

Author

Listed:
  • Laura Jarvis-King

Abstract

Economic decline, such as we have witnessed in recent years, has disproportionately affected women and evidence demonstrates how financial hardship encourages entry to the sex industry. This worsens the working conditions within sex industry markets but, despite this, evidence documenting the effects of recent austerity measures on the sex industry is lacking. This article draws on qualitative longitudinal research following the 2007–2008 financial crisis to explore work trajectories and experiences of vulnerability through time among independent indoor sex workers in the UK. Participants’ experiences demonstrate worsening conditions in the mainstream labour market, particularly for women and, within this constraining context, sex work represents a choice to mitigate economic vulnerability. Yet this creates increased competition in the sex industry alongside declining demand, which compromises economic security and worker wellbeing. Exploring sex workers’ experiences over time contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between women’s work practices and vulnerability during economic decline, which is necessary to inform policy responses.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Jarvis-King, 2024. "Trajectories of Vulnerability and Resistance Among Independent Indoor Sex Workers During Economic Decline," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 29(1), pages 137-153, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:29:y:2024:i:1:p:137-153
    DOI: 10.1177/13607804231162757
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13607804231162757
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/13607804231162757?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Teela Sanders & Laura Connelly & Laura Jarvis King, 2016. "On Our Own Terms: The Working Conditions of Internet-Based Sex Workers in the UK," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(4), pages 133-146, November.
    2. Alice Orchiston, 2016. "Precarious or Protected? Evaluating Work Quality in the Legal Sex Industry," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(4), pages 173-187, November.
    3. Stef Adriaenssens & Giulia Garofalo Geymonat & Laura Oso, 2016. "Quality of Work in Prostitution and Sex Work. Introduction to the Special Section," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(4), pages 121-132, November.
    4. Giulia Garofalo Geymonat & P.G. Macioti, 2016. "Ambivalent Professionalisation and Autonomy in Workers’ Collective Projects: The Cases of Sex Worker Peer Educators in Germany and Sexual Assistants in Switzerland," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(4), pages 201-214, November.
    5. Fairleigh Evelyn Gilmour, 2016. "Work Conditions and Job Mobility in the Australian Indoor Sex Industry," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(4), pages 147-158, November.
    6. Marina Della Giusta & Maria Laura Di Tommaso & Sarah Jewell & Francesca Bettio, 2021. "Quashing demand or changing clients? Evidence of criminalization of sex work in the United Kingdom," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(2), pages 527-544, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cecilia Benoit & Michaela Smith & Mikael Jansson & Priscilla Healey & Douglas Magnuson, 2021. "The Relative Quality of Sex Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(2), pages 239-255, April.
    2. Nadine Gloss, 2024. "Examining Professionalisation as a Strategy for Sex Worker Empowerment and Mobilisation," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 29(1), pages 154-170, March.
    3. Treena Orchard & Katherine Salter & Mary Bunch & Cecilia Benoit, 2020. "Money, Agency, and Self-Care among Cisgender and Trans People in Sex Work," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Peter Backus & Thien Nguyen, 2021. "The Effect of the Sex Buyer Law on the Market for Sex, Sexual Health and Sexual Violence," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2106, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    5. Theresa Dyrvig Henriksen, 2021. "Do Prostitution and Social Vulnerability Go Hand in Hand? Examining the Association Between Social Background and Prostitution Using Register Data," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 26(3), pages 525-543, September.
    6. Simplice A. Asongu & Usman M. Usman, 2020. "The Covid-19 pandemic: theoretical and practical perspectives on children, women and sex trafficking," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 20/082, African Governance and Development Institute..
    7. Lilith Brouwers & Tess Herrmann, 2020. "“We Have Advised Sex Workers to Simply Choose Other Options”—The Response of Adult Service Websites to COVID-19," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-15, October.
    8. Sofia Jonsson, 2023. "Does criminalizing the purchase of sex reduce sex-buying? Evidence from a European survey on prostitution," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 91-115, August.
    9. Sunny Jiao & Vicky Bungay & Emily Jenkins, 2021. "Information and Communication Technologies in Commercial Sex Work: A Double-Edged Sword for Occupational Health and Safety," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, January.
    10. Anita Ghimire & Fiona Samuels & Sarmila Mainali, 2021. "Changing Patterns of Commercial Sex Work Amongst Adolescent Girls in Nepal: The Role of Technology," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(5), pages 1390-1408, October.
    11. Philippe Adair & Oksana Nezhyvenko, 2023. "Love for sale throughout European countries: Assessing the figures of prostitution," Erudite Working Paper 2023-07, Erudite.
    12. Simplice A. Asongu & Usman M. Usman & Xuan V. Vo, 2020. "The Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19): Theoretical and practical perspectives on children, women and sex trafficking," Research Africa Network Working Papers 20/039, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    13. Virginia Gunn & Bertina Kreshpaj & Nuria Matilla-Santander & Emilia F. Vignola & David H. Wegman & Christer Hogstedt & Emily Q. Ahonen & Theo Bodin & Cecilia Orellana & Sherry Baron & Carles Muntaner , 2022. "Initiatives Addressing Precarious Employment and Its Effects on Workers’ Health and Well-Being: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-35, February.
    14. Samantha Majic & Melissa Ditmore & Jun Li, 2024. "440 Sex Workers Cannot Be Wrong: Engaging and Negotiating Online Platform Power," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-26, June.
    15. Cecilia Benoit, 2021. "Editorial: Understanding Exploitation in Consensual Sex Work to Inform Occupational Health & Safety Regulation: Current Issues and Policy Implications," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-9, June.
    16. Gillian Abel & Melissa Ludeke, 2020. "Brothels as Sites of Third-Party Exploitation? Decriminalisation and Sex Workers’ Employment Rights," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, December.
    17. Heidi Hoefinger & Jennifer Musto & P. G. Macioti & Anne E. Fehrenbacher & Nicola Mai & Calum Bennachie & Calogero Giametta, 2019. "Community-Based Responses to Negative Health Impacts of Sexual Humanitarian Anti-Trafficking Policies and the Criminalization of Sex Work and Migration in the US," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-30, December.
    18. Helen M. Rand & Hanne M. Stegeman, 2023. "Navigating and resisting platform affordances: Online sex work as digital labor," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(6), pages 2102-2118, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:29:y:2024:i:1:p:137-153. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.