Overview
- Presents a comprehensive review of ethical issues faced by contemporary sex work researchers
- Provides a review of and recommendations for best practices that informs scholars both present and future
- Explores ethical issues in the context of interviews with sex work researchers from a variety of academic fields, including the social sciences, public health, social work, and criminal justice
Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Anthropology (BRIEFSANTHRO)
Part of the book sub series: Anthropology and Ethics (AAE)
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This volume is the result of the many years the authors have spent conducting ethnographic field research with sex workers, conversing with other researchers, and, perhaps most importantly, developing a deep sense of empathy for the sex worker participants in the research as well as the colleagues who carry out this work with the goal of advancing social justice. They have a combined total of twenty-five years’ experience carrying out research with sex workers, and this extensive period of time has given them ample opportunity to reflect upon the topic of ethics.
Sex work, defined as the exchange of sexual or sexualized intimacy for money or something of value, encompasses a wide range of legal and illegal behaviors that present researchers with key ethical challenges explored in the volume. These ethical challenges include:
· Research methodology
· Distinguishing research from activism
· Navigating the politically and ideologically charged environments in which researchers must remain constantly attuned to the legal and public policy implications of their work
· Possibilities for participatory sex work research processes
· Strategies for incorporating participants in a variety of collaborative ways
Sex work presents a unique set of challenges that are not always well understood by those working outside of anthropology and disciplines closely related to it. This book serves an important function by honestly and openly reviewing strategies for overcoming these ethical challenges with the end goal of producing path-breaking research that actively incorporates the perspectives of research participants on their own terms. Ever attuned to the reality that research on sex work remains a deeply political act, Ethical Research with Sex Workers: Anthropological Approaches aspires to begin a dialogue about the meanings and practices ascribed to ethics in a fraught environment. Drawing upon a reviewof published scholarly and activist work on the subject, as well as on interviews with researchers, social service providers, and sex workers themselves, this volume is an unprecedented contribution to the literature that will engage researchers across a variety of disciplines, such as academics and researchers in anthropology, sociology, criminal justice, and public health, as well as activists and policymakers.
Reviews
“It draws greater attention toward ethical consideration which is need of the hour for social scientist in making their research work more scientific and ethical. … This book been organized into crisp 4 chapters centered on the ethical issues around the research with sex workers. … this book is an important reading material for many disciplines like sociology, psychology, law, public health, social work etc.” (T. S. Seemanthini, Disabilities and Impairments, Vol. 28 (2), 2014)
“This text is a strong addition to the nascent body of literature that documents empirical research with sex workers. … This text would also be a good fit for doctoral-level courses in community psychology and courses that use a framework of community-based research or participatory action research. Academic courses and scholarship focusing on intersections between psychology and sexuality, global perspectives on sex work and sex trafficking, and social movements could use this text as a reading assignment.” (Theodore Burnes, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 58 (46), November, 2013)Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Ethical Research with Sex Workers
Book Subtitle: Anthropological Approaches
Authors: Susan Dewey, Tiantian Zheng
Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Anthropology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6492-1
Publisher: Springer New York, NY
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science, Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2013
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4614-6491-4Published: 23 April 2013
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4614-6492-1Published: 23 April 2013
Series ISSN: 2195-0806
Series E-ISSN: 2195-0814
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 111
Topics: Anthropology, Sexual Behavior, Sociology, general