This article argues that photo elicitation interviewing creates opportunities to explore the multi-facets of people’s lives. To do so, it draws from a PhD research project with women working in sex work in Victoria, Australia. I argue... more
This article argues that photo elicitation interviewing creates opportunities to explore the multi-facets of people’s lives. To do so, it draws from a PhD research project with women working in sex work in Victoria, Australia. I argue that photo elicitation is a useful method for exploring the complexity involved in sex work and other areas of study where intersections between various facets of life interact to inform the meanings that individuals apply to their lives, themselves, and other people. I also explore how the interpretations, drawn from the photos, emerge from a reflexive project between interviewer and participant, as each bring with them their own discursive understandings of symbols, psychology, metaphors, and analogies. In order to explore my own part in this shared meaning creation I undertake a researcher’s autoethnography (Ellis, 1999) of the use of participant-driven photo elicitation with sex workers. Using a layered account (Ronai, 1995) I move between memories/stories of engagement with the participants and their narratives elicited through the method.
Prostitution has been a major cause of concern for many centuries. It is a global phenomenon, which has become a burden on governments, human rights organizations and societies in general. This study is an attempt to analyze the regimes... more
Prostitution has been a major cause of concern for many centuries. It is a global phenomenon, which has become a burden on governments, human rights organizations and societies in general. This study is an attempt to analyze the regimes by which sex work is regulated in different countries and in different States within Mexico. For the particular case of Mexico, commercial sex work or prostitution exists legally but it is a phenomenon with many stereotypes that very few really acknowledge or understand. After putting into context what is commercial sex work, different legal frameworks will be analyzed; this research will conclude with a series of recommendations to raise the awareness of local authorities, NGO’s and other stakeholders for them to consider a reform to the current regulations in Tijuana, Mexico.
This article will bring together Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of Smooth Space and zemiological debates of social harms to respond to the question set by Jane Scoular (2015): does the law matter in sex work? The regulation and policing of... more
This article will bring together Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of Smooth Space and zemiological debates of social harms to respond to the question set by Jane Scoular (2015): does the law matter in sex work? The regulation and policing of performers by hosting sites allow sites to avoid state-level legislation. However, site regulations cause performers to experience harm that traditional concepts of the law cannot address because the law is powerless against the intrinsic injuries done by neo-liberalism. The damages experienced by female performers were not generally criminal but nonetheless harmful to those experiencing them, even though generally no laws were transgressed. When performers did experience crime, the non-territorial nature of the internet prevented action from being taken. This article will explore the irrelevance of the law in the context of webcamming and the potential harms caused by academia’s fixed gaze on the customer, preventing consideration of the damages done to webcam performers by other social actors.
