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Examining Professionalisation as a Strategy for Sex Worker Empowerment and Mobilisation

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  • Nadine Gloss

    (Global Network of Sex Work Projects, Scotland)

Abstract

In this article, I examine the concept of professionalisation in sex work as a strategy shaped by political activism that aims to empower and mobilise sex workers to fight for labour rights. Using a participant-based action research approach, I investigated one sex worker professionalisation programme in Germany to better understand how the design, training and goals of the programme reflected ideas and priorities from the Association for Erotic and Sexual Service Providers, a nationwide sex worker rights organisation in Germany. Through my analysis, I found that the programme for professionalisation was mainly oriented around criticism against the new German Prostitute Protection Act (2017), framing data protection as a sex worker rights issue, and encouraging critical resistance to authorities enforcing the Act. Based on these themes, I offer two new perspectives on the aims of the programme in relation to empowering and destigmatising sex workers. First, the tools of resistance offered through the programme as a way of empowering sex workers were confounded by sex workers’ individual situations that limited their ability to practice resistance. Second, the politics of funding for the programme, guided by the goal of ensuring sex workers are less of a public health risk, may interfere with the broader goal of destigmatising sex work.

Suggested Citation

  • Nadine Gloss, 2024. "Examining Professionalisation as a Strategy for Sex Worker Empowerment and Mobilisation," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 29(1), pages 154-170, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:29:y:2024:i:1:p:154-170
    DOI: 10.1177/13607804231170520
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alice Orchiston, 2016. "Precarious or Protected? Evaluating Work Quality in the Legal Sex Industry," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(4), pages 173-187, November.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Laura Oso, 2016. "Transnational Social Mobility Strategies and Quality of Work among Latin-American Women Sex Workers in Spain," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 21(4), pages 188-200, November.
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