The (re)making of sexualities on the web. (December 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pajnik, Mojca; Renault, Matthieu
• Is Part Of: Social science information. Volume 53:Number 4(2014:Dec.)
• Page Start: 462
• Page End: 482
• Publication Date: 2014-12
• Subjects: cartography -- prostitution -- trafficking -- websites; cartographie -- prostitution -- sites web -- traite des êtres humains; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social history -- Periodicals; Technology and civilization -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 300.5
• DOI: 10.1177/0539018414531677
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0539-0184

Abstract

This article analyses the controversy on the topics of prostitution and human trafficking online by way of researching the structure and discourses of non-commercial websites. Previous research (Agustín, 2005; Doezema, 2000; Freedman, 2003; Kelly, 2005) has shown that general-public, media and theoretical discussions tend to dichotomize the two phenomena, reconfirming the dividing lines between them. Realities are much more complex, pointing to the inadequacy of the division and to the interchangeable relations between the phenomena that are manifested at the intersection of economic, social and political developments determined by gender, ethnicity and class inequality (Pajnik, 2008, 2010). We explore in this article whether online discourses and debates reinforce the divide or, alternatively, provide new approaches to treating prostitution and trafficking as interrelated phenomena, because they are, increasingly, becoming migration and labour (economic and social) issues in the wider sense.