Prostitution in Tbilisi. Processes of Marginalization and Empowerment in Moral Discourses and Urban Practices in the 20th and Early 21st Century

关于第比利斯妓女和卖淫问题的研究提案旨在探讨两个不同时期的道德话语和城市空间的生产：一个是从1900年左右到1920年代的时期;另一个是从1980年代末到现在的时期。在理解这一分项目提案时，实践和思想塑造了道德话语和城市空间的生产，关于重新定罪和非犯罪化以及两个选定时期的合法化的话语。自1980年代末卖淫活动重新出现以来，当地的城市活动支持妓女为捍卫人权而斗争。然而，迄今为止还没有实现卖淫的非犯罪化或合法化，研究提案的历史视角允许更详细地研究道德话语的结合条件以及地方和区域环境和动态中的持续性、历史变化和新兴治理技术的具体组合、社会动员和道德主体化过程。对目前的辩论特别重要的是分析关于第比利斯的全球性讨论，迄今为止，这些讨论特别影响了那些公开主张将卖淫非刑罪化或合法化的社会力量。无论是捍卫妓女及其权利的论述，还是诋毁妓女或将其定为犯罪的论述，都是道德上的“负载”。该项目不仅调查关于妓女的言论和做法，而且调查妓女。通过这样做，它探索了不断变化的城市社会秩序和城市社会空间。第比利斯市和前一个项目的城市布加勒斯特一样，是由苏联秩序塑造的。但与布加勒斯特不同的是，自1922年苏联成立以来，它一直是苏联的一部分。在这两个城市，国家秩序主导着人口，反过来，人口往往对国家持消极态度。自2000年代以来，这两个国家在苏联解体后不久的新国家地位薄弱之后，国家地位得到了加强。该研究提案旨在更深入地探索这些条件如何塑造新兴的治理技术，社会创造力和道德主体化过程。在这方面，研究问题考虑到卖淫的非法性和妓女社会群体的边缘性：在这种情况下，道德话语和社会创造力是如何形成的？卖淫的非法性对新的体制安排有何影响？对卖淫的禁忌对主体化的新过程有什么影响？

The research proposal on prostitutes and prostitution in Tbilisi aims at exploring moral discourses and the production of urban space in two distinctive periods of time: one is the time period from around 1900 until the 1920s; the other is the time period from the late 1980s to the present time. In the understanding of this subproject proposal, practices and ideas shaped moral discourses and the production of urban space, discourses on re-criminalization and de-criminalization and legalization the two selected time periods. Local urban activism has supported prostitutes in their struggle for defending their human rights since prostitution has reemerged in the late 1980s. However, a de-criminalization or legalization of prostitution has so far not been achieved.The historical perspective of the research proposal allows to study in more detail the conditions of conjunctures of moral discourses as well as continuities, historical change and specific constellations of emerging techniques of governing, social mobilization and processes of ethical subjectivation in their local and regional settings and dynamics. Of particular importance for the current debate is the analysis of global discourses on Tbilisi which so far have influenced in particular those social forces which spoke out in favor of a de-criminalizatzion or legalization of prostitution. Both discourses which defend prostitutes and their rights and discourses which denigrate or criminalize them are ethically "loaded". The project investigates not only discourses on and practices against prostitutes but also of prostitutes. By doing this it explores the chanigng urban social order and urban social space.The city of Tbilisi is, like Bucharest, the city of the previous project, shaped by the Soviet order. But in contrast to Bucharest it has been part of the Soviet Union since its beginning in 1922. In both cities state order dominated the population which, in turn, tended to have a negative attitude towards the state. Weak new statehood in the immediate post-Soviet time period was followed in both countries since the 2000s by a strengthening of statehood. The research proposal aims at exploring in more depth how these conditions shaped emerging new techniques of governing, social creativity and processes of ethical subjectivation. In this regard, research questions take into consideration the illegality of prostitution and the marginality of the social group of prostitutes: How do an ethical discourse and social creativity come into being in this context? How did the illegality of prostitution impact on new institutional arrangements? What effect did the tabooing of prostitution have on new processes of subjectivation?