The Subject of Prostitution: Sex Work, Law and Social Theory

The Subject of Prostitution offers a distinctive analysis of the links between prostitution and social theory using these insights to advance a critical analysis of the relationship of law to sex/work. Using the lens of social theory to disrupt fixed meanings the book provides an advanced analytical framework through which to understand the complexity and contingencies of sex/work in late-modernity. Offering a selective genealogy of the subject of prostitution, discrete chapters analyses key historical moments from the Contagious Diseases Acts and their relationship to modernity, AIDs and risk, to contemporary citizenship discourse and the competing demands of empowerment by sexworkers and protection by radical feminists who view prostitution as the epitome of patriarchal sexual and economic relations. The author's central focus is the role of law in structuring, and as a resource responding to, the 'problem of prostitution'. This is particularly pertinent as we enter a period of unprecedented legal reform both internationally and nationally and legal norms simultaneously attempt to protect, empower and criminalise parties involved in the purchase of sexual services. The Subject of Prostitution aims to provide an advanced theoretical resource for policy makers, researchers and activists involved in contemporary struggles over the meanings and place of sex/work in late modernity. Drawing on interdisciplinary insights, this sustained critical analysis operates as a key node between studies prostitution and social theory more generally, introducing the subject to a wider audience as it brings social theory to prostitution and prostitution to social theorists.