Structure and agency
Reflections from an exploratory study of Vancouver indoor sex workers
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15097855 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Vicky Bungay (0000-0001-6440-7182, University of British Columbia, corresponding author), Marjorie Halpin (0000-0001-9109-8290, University of British Columbia), Michael Halpin, Chris Atchison (0000-0001-9616-4509, Simon Fraser University), Caitlin Johnston (0000-0003-1383-6731, Urban Health Research Initiative, BC Centre for Excellence HIV/AIDS) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 15-29 |
| Publication date | 2011-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Culture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13691058.2010.517324 |
| PMID | 20967651 |
| OpenAlex | W2076695998 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 45 |
| References cited | 16 |
Sex work research continues to be characterised by debates around decriminalization. Central to these debates are claims about the agency of those involved in the sex trade. Some researchers argue that individuals involved in the sex trade are victims of structural and interpersonal constraint, whilst others depict them as workers exercising choice. Drawing on structure-agency theory, a review of legal and media accounts of the sex trade and qualitative interviews with 21 indoor sex workers in Vancouver, Canada, we argue that both of these perspectives are insufficient. Rather than reducing the sex trade to part of a binary, we suggest that it is necessary to analyse sex work through the complex interplay of both structure and agency. Specifically, structural analyses undercover the numerous ways that sex workers are controlled, observed and influenced whilst agency perspectives elicit the means that sex workers continue to exercise control in spite of disadvantage. While we do not finalise decriminalisation debates, we do critique current Canadian laws for the lack of responsiveness to the lives of sex workers and their exploitative and contradictory stance on sex work
Criminology · Decriminalization · Disadvantage · Political science · Sex work · Sex workers · Social science · Sociology · Structure and agency · Demography · Engineering · Gender Studies · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk · Law · Medicine · Sex work and related issues · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
Victims or empowered entrepreneurs? Media constructions of sex workers in Italy and Belgium
The Invisible Women
Sex Work, Immigration and Social Difference
Sex Work and Motherhood
Violence in the Massage Parlor Industry
Early Assessment of Integrated Knowledge Translation Efforts to Mobilize Sex Workers in Their Communities
Covid-19, Stigma, and the Ongoing Marginalization of Sex Workers and their Support Organizations
Intersecting structural barriers to reporting violence among men and non-binary sex workers under end-demand criminalization in Canada
Risks and Agency Monte Adentro
Refusing Surveillance, Reframing Risk
Decriminalization and What Else? Alternative Structural Interventions to Promote the Health, Safety, and Rights of Sex Workers
Between Visibility and Invisibility
Exploring the Context of Trafficking and Adolescent Sex Industry Involvement in Tijuana, Mexico
Sex Work’s Governance
Sex work-based livelihoods in post 2000 in Zimbabwe
Stigma, agency, and motherhood
An intersectional analysis of social constraints and agency among sex workers in Tunisia during the Covid-19 pandemic; the community-based qualitative study Epic-Mena
Sex workers’ confidence in the police in one Canadian city under the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act
Sex Work in the Forest City
Sexual safety practices of massage parlor-based sex workers and their clients
Mobile phones and sex work in South India
The microeconomics of sexual exploitation of girls and young women in the Peruvian Amazon
Sex workers talk about sex work
Introduction to the Culture, Health & Sexuality Virtual Special Issue on sex, sexuality and sex work
Sex work venue and condom use among female sex workers in Senggigi, Indonesia
Agency, lapse in condom use and relationship intimacy among female sex workers in Jamaica
Violence prevention and municipal licensing of indoor sex work venues in the Greater Vancouver Area
The Drayang Girls of Thimphu
Sexual culture in low-income older adult housing
Lived experiences of street-based female sex workers in Kathmandu
Business before pleasure’
Condom use as situated in a risk context
The relationship between social, policy and physical venue features and social cohesion on condom use for pregnancy prevention among sex workers
Agency Is Everywhere, but Agency Is Not Enough
Prostitution Stigma and Its Effect on the Working Conditions, Personal Lives, and Health of Sex Workers
Sex, Gender, and Diversity in Sex Work Research
Sex Work Among Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender Women in Bogotá
Sex workers' professional agency, quality of life, and problematic substance use in Finland
Would you think about doing sex for money? Structure and agency in deciding to sell sex in Canada
The political economy of 'lap dancing
Precarious or Protected? Evaluating Work Quality in the Legal Sex Industry
Well, It Should Be Changed for One, Because It's Our Bodies
Brothels as Sites of Third-Party Exploitation? Decriminalisation and Sex Workers' Employment Rights
Reba and Her Insurgent Prose
Addressing Underrepresentation in Sex Work Research
Violence and Legalized Brothel Prostitution in Nevada
New directions in research on prostitution
Sexed Work
Sex Work for the Middle Classes
Negotiating Risk
Another Decade of Social Scientific Work on Sex Work
Men Who Buy Sex
Conducting HIV/Aids Research With Indoor Commercial Sex Workers
Women in Street Prostitution
Violence in Indoor and Outdoor Prostitution Venues
Violence and the Outlaw Status of (Street) Prostitution in Canada
Bad for the Body, Bad for the Heart”
The influence of power, poverty and agency in the negotiation of condom use for female sex workers in mainland China
Social and structural violence and power relations in mitigating HIV risk of drug-using women in survival sex work
The Work of Sex Work
| Unique citing works | 45 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2026 (16) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 43 |