Understanding Sex for Sale ― Meanings and Moralities of Sexual Commerce

The problem of prostitution, sex work or sex for sale can often be misunderstood, if we do not take into consideration its spatial, temporal and political context.

Understanding Sex for Sale aims to understand how prostitution, sex work or sex for sale are delineated, contested and understood in different spaces, places and times; with a particular focus on identifying how the relation between sex and money is interpreted and enacted. Divided into three parts, this interdisciplinary volume offers contributions that discuss ongoing theoretical issues and analytical challenges. Some chapters focus on how prostitution, sex work or sex for sale have been regulated by the authorities and on the understandings that regulations are built upon. Other chapters investigate the experiences of sex workers and sex buyers, examining how these actors adjust to or resist the categorisation processes, control and stigma they are subjected to. Finally, a third group of chapters discuss contemporary definitional issues produced by various actors tasked with controlling prostitution or offering social services to its participants.

Advancing and placing analytical tools at the forefront of the discussion, Understanding Sex for Sale appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as researchers, interested in fields such as sociology, anthropology, criminology

May-Len Skilbrei is Professor at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo, Norway. Skilbrei has researched prostitution and prostitution policies since the mid-1990s. In the last ten years she has been involved in research on human trafficking, migration and gender, and has published articles in Crime & Justice, Women & Criminal Justice, Sexuality Research & Social Policy, Ethnos and British Journal of Criminology.

Marlene Spanger is Associate Professor at the Department of Culture & Global Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark. Spanger’s research fields include ethnographic fieldwork and discursive formations within the policy fields of prostitution and human trafficking, transnational intimacies and migration with a special attention to gender, sexual and racial issues.