An Ethnographic Analysis of Escort Services in Poland
An Interactionist Approach
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12875641 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Izabela Ślęzak (0000-0001-5489-0481, University of Lodz, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 122-144 |
| Publication date | 2020-10-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Qualitative Sociology Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1733-8077 • E-ISSN: 1733-8077 |
| Publisher | Uniwersytet Lodzki (University of Lodz) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.18778/1733-8077.16.4.08 |
| OpenAlex | W3102412625 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 33 |
In the Polish literature on the subject, prostitution is analyzed from various theoretical perspectives, but, first of all, from the perspective of social pathology. This approach makes the researchers focus mainly on the social maladjustment of women providing sex services and the reasons for their violation of the normative order. In my ethnographic research conducted in escort agencies in Poland, I was willing to go beyond this narrow outlook. I have adapted an interactionist perspective to analyze the escort agencies as organizations where intense interactions between employees, as well as employees and clients, take place, the sex work process is organized, and the meanings of prostitution are negotiated. I conducted the analysis according to the procedures of the grounded theory methodology. It allowed me to see and describe such processes as: (re)defining the situation of providing sex services from vice to work, sex work as a collective action, performing sex work, secondary socialization for sex work. The adaption of an interactionist perspective opens some new directions for analysis, which could help to understand the phenomenon of women getting involved in and continuing to provide sex services for a long time
Action (physics · Epistemology · Ethnography · Grounded theory · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Interactionism · Normative · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative research · Sex work · Social phenomenon · Social science · Socialization · Sociology · Subject (documents · Symbolic interactionism · Work (physics · Gender Studies · Medicine · Polish Legal and Social Issues · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Social Psychology
Techniques of Neutralization
Social Construction of Sex Work
Sexual Conduct
Symbolic Interactionism
Boys in white
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
The Discovery of Grounded Theory
Research on indoor sex work in Poland
Doing Ethnography
Sexing Up the Subject
Vice in Chicago
Special
A Present and a Non-Present Body—Experiencing the Body by Female Sex Workers in Commercial Sexual Relations
Sexing-Up the Subject
Hookers, Rounders, and Desk Clerks
Human Nature and the Social Order
Sprostytuowane, zranione, wrobione
Techniques of Neutralization
Careers
The City as a Sexual Laboratory
Men and Their Work
Asylums
The Social Integration of Queers and Peers
The Homosexual Community
Becoming a Marihuana User
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |