Isabel Crowhurst
Biographic Data
| ID | 744 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Isabel Crowhurst |
| GIVEN NAMES | Isabel |
| FAMILY NAME | Crowhurst |
| SIGNATURE | CROWHURST I |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Essex |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8125-7147 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 123 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Citizenship, sex work and taxes: Perspective from three European contexts
This article explores the overlooked nexus between taxation and sex work, approaching it as a vehicle for examining the conditions under which sex workers are legible to themselves, the state, and others as full citizens. Bringing together sex work, taxation, and citizenship studies, this is the first study to consider sex workers' perspectives on the fiscal regimes in which they operate and how they negotiate and make sense of the challenges the…
Sex work and gendered tax imaginaries
By exploring how the taxation of sex work is interpreted and explained, this article aims to expand theoretical and empirical understandings of tax imaginaries – the collectively formed meanings ascribed to taxes, taxpaying, and the purposes they serve – and how gender is mobilised in their construction. It argues that tax imaginaries created and circulated through online expert commentaries on the taxation of prostitution in Italy discredit sex …
Difficult Conversations: A Feminist Dialogue
Control creep and the multiple exclusions faced by women in low-autonomy sex industry sectors
This article unites the co-authors’ years of empirical research with women in policed, stigmatized, and low-autonomy sex industry sectors in Brazil, China, Italy, and the United States to identify six prevalent forms of exclusion: economic, intersectional, health, safety, public vilification, and policing. We analyze the distinct manifestations of these exclusionary forces in all four sites to introduce criminal creep as theoretical shorthand for…
A Cathartic Moment in a Man's Life: Homosociality and Gendered Fun on the Puttan Tour
Rarely addressed in academic scholarship, the puttan tour is a well-known form of entertainment in Italy where young men drive around in small groups with the aim of spotting street sex workers. On some occasions, the participants will approach the sex workers to strike up a conversation. On others, they will shout out insults from their car then drive away. This article aims to advance a detailed analysis of this underexplored cultural practice …
We should tax sex workers to fund subsidies for families’: Shifting affective registers and enduring (sexual) norms in the Italian Northern League’s approach to prostitution
This paper explores changes in the emotional and affective repertoires mobilized by the Northern League, a radical right-wing populist party in Italy, to justify its recent prostitution policy proposal. Having dispensed to alarge extent with the punitive and fearful rhetoric against migrant prostitution that characterized its previous campaigns, under its new leader the Northern League has been calling for the regulation of prostitution and for i…
The Ambiguous Taxation of Prostitution: The Role of Fiscal Arrangements in Hindering the Sexual and Economic Citizenship of Sex Workers
Sexual Commerce: Troubling Meanings, Policies, and Practices
Routledge International Handbook of Sex Industry Research
The Routledge International Handbook of Sex Industry Research unites 45 contributions from researchers, sex workers, activists, and practitioners who live and work in 28 countries throughout the world. Focusing tightly on the contemporary state of sex industry research through eight carefully selected themes, this volume sets a clear agenda for future research, activism, and policymaking. Approaching the topic from a multidisciplinary perspective…
International comparative explorations of prostitution policies: Lessons from two European projects
In this contribution we reflect on our experiences of co-designing and coordinating two comparative projects on prostitution policies in Europe by focusing in particular on the epistemological workings underpinning their design and execution. We set out two main goals. The first is to shed light on what the epistemological and methodological issues we encountered reveal about the field of prostitution policy studies, an endeavor which can contrib…
Reproducing Citizens: Family, state and civil society
Book synopsis: Whilst the politics of reproduction have been at the heart of feminist struggles for over a century and a half, their analysis has not yet come to occupy a central place in the interdisciplinary study of citizenship. This volume takes up the challenge posed by Bryan Turner, when he noted "the absence of any systematic thinking about familial relations, reproduction and citizenship" (2008), and offers the first major global collecti…
Reproducing Citizens: Family, State and Civil Society
Living Apart Relationships in Contemporary Europe: Accounts of Togetherness and Apartness
Drawing on a European cross-national biographical-narrative study of intimate life, this article discusses the complexity of experiences of ‘togetherness’ and ‘apartness’ amongst people in living apart relationships. We explore the five main ways in which interviewees spoke about and understood their current living apart relationships (as: chosen; temporary; transitional; undecided; and unrecognisable), which we argue shows the need for a broader…
Troubling gatekeepers: Methodological considerations for social research
We are also grateful to the journal's editors for their support and patience
Close encounters: Researching intimate lives in Europe
This research note aims to extend the discussion on the methodological implications of doing research on intimacy and personal life. Drawing on a comparative study concerned with the intimate lives of those who live outside the conventional, modern western nuclear family, it reflects on the processes of gaining access to often hard-to-reach populations which informed and influenced the empirical work that we carried out in four European countries
The fallacy of the instrumental gate? Contextualising the process of gaining access through gatekeepers
Drawing on ethnographic research concerned with the phenomenon of migrant prostitution in Italy, this article problematises the mechanistic model in social research that reduces the gatekeeper to a static and instrumental figure to be gotten past and the passage through the metaphorical gate as a matter of course. Moving beyond this, it suggests approaching gatekeepers as social actors embedded, participating in and influencing relations of power…
Changing Landscapes of Heteronormativity: The Regulation and Normalization of Same-Sex Sexualities in Europe
This paper explores transformations in institutional norms about same-sex sexualities across four European countries: Bulgaria, Norway, Portugal and the UK. Focusing on the period from the late 1960s to the present day, it examines both endogenous, path-dependent nationally specific factors at work in the changing regulation of same-sex sexualities, particularly the campaigns of lesbian and gay movements, and exogenous influences exerted by proce…
Reproduction and citizenship/reproducing citizens: Editorial Introduction
Introduction: The politics of sexuality in contemporary Italy
Sex is always political. But there are historical periods in which sexuality is more sharply contested and more overtly politicized. In such periods, the domain of erotic life is, in effect, renegotiated. (Rubin 1999, 143)
Caught in the victim/criminal paradigm: Female migrant prostitution in contemporary Italy
This article offers a critical exploration of exclusionary practices enacted in Italy towards migrant prostitute women. It identifies the double construction of migrant prostitute women as victims of sex trafficking and as illegal/criminal migrants as a dominant paradigm that informs policy approaches aimed at addressing their presence in the country. It explores how this paradigm has emerged in the specific context of contemporary Italy, how it …
Approaches to the Regulation and Governance of Prostitution in Contemporary Italy
Introduction: Prostitution Policies in Europe
Changing Landscapes of Heteronormativity: The Regulation and Normalization of Same-Sex Sexualities in Europe
This paper explores transformations in institutional norms about same-sex sexualities across four European countries: Bulgaria, Norway, Portugal and the UK. Focusing on the period from the late 1960s to the present day, it examines both endogenous, path-dependent nationally specific factors at work in the changing regulation of same-sex sexualities, particularly the campaigns of lesbian and gay movements, and exogenous influences exerted by proce…
Troubling gatekeepers: Methodological considerations for social research
We are also grateful to the journal's editors for their support and patience
The fallacy of the instrumental gate? Contextualising the process of gaining access through gatekeepers
Drawing on ethnographic research concerned with the phenomenon of migrant prostitution in Italy, this article problematises the mechanistic model in social research that reduces the gatekeeper to a static and instrumental figure to be gotten past and the passage through the metaphorical gate as a matter of course. Moving beyond this, it suggests approaching gatekeepers as social actors embedded, participating in and influencing relations of power…
Reproduction and citizenship/reproducing citizens: Editorial Introduction
Introduction: Prostitution Policies in Europe
Living Apart Relationships in Contemporary Europe: Accounts of Togetherness and Apartness
Drawing on a European cross-national biographical-narrative study of intimate life, this article discusses the complexity of experiences of ‘togetherness’ and ‘apartness’ amongst people in living apart relationships. We explore the five main ways in which interviewees spoke about and understood their current living apart relationships (as: chosen; temporary; transitional; undecided; and unrecognisable), which we argue shows the need for a broader…
Approaches to the Regulation and Governance of Prostitution in Contemporary Italy
A Cathartic Moment in a Man's Life: Homosociality and Gendered Fun on the Puttan Tour
Rarely addressed in academic scholarship, the puttan tour is a well-known form of entertainment in Italy where young men drive around in small groups with the aim of spotting street sex workers. On some occasions, the participants will approach the sex workers to strike up a conversation. On others, they will shout out insults from their car then drive away. This article aims to advance a detailed analysis of this underexplored cultural practice …
The Ambiguous Taxation of Prostitution: The Role of Fiscal Arrangements in Hindering the Sexual and Economic Citizenship of Sex Workers
Close encounters: Researching intimate lives in Europe
This research note aims to extend the discussion on the methodological implications of doing research on intimacy and personal life. Drawing on a comparative study concerned with the intimate lives of those who live outside the conventional, modern western nuclear family, it reflects on the processes of gaining access to often hard-to-reach populations which informed and influenced the empirical work that we carried out in four European countries
Citizenship, sex work and taxes: Perspective from three European contexts
This article explores the overlooked nexus between taxation and sex work, approaching it as a vehicle for examining the conditions under which sex workers are legible to themselves, the state, and others as full citizens. Bringing together sex work, taxation, and citizenship studies, this is the first study to consider sex workers' perspectives on the fiscal regimes in which they operate and how they negotiate and make sense of the challenges the…
We should tax sex workers to fund subsidies for families’: Shifting affective registers and enduring (sexual) norms in the Italian Northern League’s approach to prostitution
This paper explores changes in the emotional and affective repertoires mobilized by the Northern League, a radical right-wing populist party in Italy, to justify its recent prostitution policy proposal. Having dispensed to alarge extent with the punitive and fearful rhetoric against migrant prostitution that characterized its previous campaigns, under its new leader the Northern League has been calling for the regulation of prostitution and for i…
International comparative explorations of prostitution policies: Lessons from two European projects
In this contribution we reflect on our experiences of co-designing and coordinating two comparative projects on prostitution policies in Europe by focusing in particular on the epistemological workings underpinning their design and execution. We set out two main goals. The first is to shed light on what the epistemological and methodological issues we encountered reveal about the field of prostitution policy studies, an endeavor which can contrib…
Introduction: The politics of sexuality in contemporary Italy
Sex is always political. But there are historical periods in which sexuality is more sharply contested and more overtly politicized. In such periods, the domain of erotic life is, in effect, renegotiated. (Rubin 1999, 143)
Caught in the victim/criminal paradigm: Female migrant prostitution in contemporary Italy
This article offers a critical exploration of exclusionary practices enacted in Italy towards migrant prostitute women. It identifies the double construction of migrant prostitute women as victims of sex trafficking and as illegal/criminal migrants as a dominant paradigm that informs policy approaches aimed at addressing their presence in the country. It explores how this paradigm has emerged in the specific context of contemporary Italy, how it …
Approaches to the Regulation and Governance of Prostitution in Contemporary Italy
Introduction: Prostitution Policies in Europe
Troubling gatekeepers: Methodological considerations for social research
We are also grateful to the journal's editors for their support and patience
Close encounters: Researching intimate lives in Europe
This research note aims to extend the discussion on the methodological implications of doing research on intimacy and personal life. Drawing on a comparative study concerned with the intimate lives of those who live outside the conventional, modern western nuclear family, it reflects on the processes of gaining access to often hard-to-reach populations which informed and influenced the empirical work that we carried out in four European countries
The fallacy of the instrumental gate? Contextualising the process of gaining access through gatekeepers
Drawing on ethnographic research concerned with the phenomenon of migrant prostitution in Italy, this article problematises the mechanistic model in social research that reduces the gatekeeper to a static and instrumental figure to be gotten past and the passage through the metaphorical gate as a matter of course. Moving beyond this, it suggests approaching gatekeepers as social actors embedded, participating in and influencing relations of power…
Changing Landscapes of Heteronormativity: The Regulation and Normalization of Same-Sex Sexualities in Europe
This paper explores transformations in institutional norms about same-sex sexualities across four European countries: Bulgaria, Norway, Portugal and the UK. Focusing on the period from the late 1960s to the present day, it examines both endogenous, path-dependent nationally specific factors at work in the changing regulation of same-sex sexualities, particularly the campaigns of lesbian and gay movements, and exogenous influences exerted by proce…
Reproduction and citizenship/reproducing citizens: Editorial Introduction
Living Apart Relationships in Contemporary Europe: Accounts of Togetherness and Apartness
Drawing on a European cross-national biographical-narrative study of intimate life, this article discusses the complexity of experiences of ‘togetherness’ and ‘apartness’ amongst people in living apart relationships. We explore the five main ways in which interviewees spoke about and understood their current living apart relationships (as: chosen; temporary; transitional; undecided; and unrecognisable), which we argue shows the need for a broader…
Reproducing Citizens: Family, State and Civil Society
Reproducing Citizens: Family, state and civil society
Book synopsis: Whilst the politics of reproduction have been at the heart of feminist struggles for over a century and a half, their analysis has not yet come to occupy a central place in the interdisciplinary study of citizenship. This volume takes up the challenge posed by Bryan Turner, when he noted "the absence of any systematic thinking about familial relations, reproduction and citizenship" (2008), and offers the first major global collecti…
Routledge International Handbook of Sex Industry Research
The Routledge International Handbook of Sex Industry Research unites 45 contributions from researchers, sex workers, activists, and practitioners who live and work in 28 countries throughout the world. Focusing tightly on the contemporary state of sex industry research through eight carefully selected themes, this volume sets a clear agenda for future research, activism, and policymaking. Approaching the topic from a multidisciplinary perspective…
International comparative explorations of prostitution policies: Lessons from two European projects
In this contribution we reflect on our experiences of co-designing and coordinating two comparative projects on prostitution policies in Europe by focusing in particular on the epistemological workings underpinning their design and execution. We set out two main goals. The first is to shed light on what the epistemological and methodological issues we encountered reveal about the field of prostitution policy studies, an endeavor which can contrib…
We should tax sex workers to fund subsidies for families’: Shifting affective registers and enduring (sexual) norms in the Italian Northern League’s approach to prostitution
This paper explores changes in the emotional and affective repertoires mobilized by the Northern League, a radical right-wing populist party in Italy, to justify its recent prostitution policy proposal. Having dispensed to alarge extent with the punitive and fearful rhetoric against migrant prostitution that characterized its previous campaigns, under its new leader the Northern League has been calling for the regulation of prostitution and for i…
The Ambiguous Taxation of Prostitution: The Role of Fiscal Arrangements in Hindering the Sexual and Economic Citizenship of Sex Workers
Sexual Commerce: Troubling Meanings, Policies, and Practices
Control creep and the multiple exclusions faced by women in low-autonomy sex industry sectors
This article unites the co-authors’ years of empirical research with women in policed, stigmatized, and low-autonomy sex industry sectors in Brazil, China, Italy, and the United States to identify six prevalent forms of exclusion: economic, intersectional, health, safety, public vilification, and policing. We analyze the distinct manifestations of these exclusionary forces in all four sites to introduce criminal creep as theoretical shorthand for…
A Cathartic Moment in a Man's Life: Homosociality and Gendered Fun on the Puttan Tour
Rarely addressed in academic scholarship, the puttan tour is a well-known form of entertainment in Italy where young men drive around in small groups with the aim of spotting street sex workers. On some occasions, the participants will approach the sex workers to strike up a conversation. On others, they will shout out insults from their car then drive away. This article aims to advance a detailed analysis of this underexplored cultural practice …
Difficult Conversations: A Feminist Dialogue
Sex work and gendered tax imaginaries
By exploring how the taxation of sex work is interpreted and explained, this article aims to expand theoretical and empirical understandings of tax imaginaries – the collectively formed meanings ascribed to taxes, taxpaying, and the purposes they serve – and how gender is mobilised in their construction. It argues that tax imaginaries created and circulated through online expert commentaries on the taxation of prostitution in Italy discredit sex …
Citizenship, sex work and taxes: Perspective from three European contexts
This article explores the overlooked nexus between taxation and sex work, approaching it as a vehicle for examining the conditions under which sex workers are legible to themselves, the state, and others as full citizens. Bringing together sex work, taxation, and citizenship studies, this is the first study to consider sex workers' perspectives on the fiscal regimes in which they operate and how they negotiate and make sense of the challenges the…
Sociology (17 works) · Political science (15 works) · Sex work and related issues (13 works) · Law (11 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Law (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Criminology (5 works)