Who and what does the UK sex worker movement represent?

迄今为止，对英国性工作者与国家关系的现有研究未能解决性工作者行动主义的核心冲突。为了过上有活力的生活，性工作者活动家可能会被视为被迫诉诸政府批准的权利渠道——以一种可以被称为“carceral”的形式（Bernstein, 2012; Puar, 2007）。然而，该运动长期以来要求双方自愿的性工作在法律上完全合法化的运动，也可能被解读为——从本质上讲——一种反政府立场。这个项目提出了对性工作者运动的批判性材料调查，探索它是否可能处于反对和批评的地位。这次干预将从描述性工作者活动开始，看看谁是性工作者活动分子，以及他们的活动为谁服务。我还将探讨这种行动主义的更广泛的相关性——探索其更广泛的社会影响。我断言，Achille Mbembe提出的、由Jasbir Puar、Paul B. Preciado等人应用的死亡政治框架，是理解性工作激进主义及其与国家关系的这种未被理论化的紧张关系的关键途径，它使人们能够在建立反新自由主义、反民族主义立场的同时，参与监管法律模式。我有一个初步的研究问题：当代英国性工作者权利运动代表什么，代表谁？在方法论上，本项目将话语分析与社会运动分析相结合。我将使用交叉的、酷儿的和女权主义的方法论，借鉴Donna Haraway关于“情境知识”的女权主义认识论作品，它挑战了客观获取知识的想法，同时也借鉴了Kimberle Crenshaw、Sandra Harding和Aristea Fotopolou关于交叉方法的研究。我将对现任或前任性工作者权利活动家进行大约25次半结构化的定性访谈，并使用新闻和博客、视频、传单、活动家网页和政策文件的副本作为额外的、补充的数据来源。在参与者知情同意的情况下，我将参加并观察小组会议、演示和更多的非正式会面。为了找到采访对象，我正在联系伦敦的五个组织：英国妓女团体、性工作者开放大学（SWOU）、每周举办性工作者早餐的X-talk团体、东伦敦脱衣舞者团体（ELSC）和性工作者歌剧（SWO）。我也会联系爱尔兰的性工作者联盟、苏格兰性工作者协会（SCOT-PEP）和全球性工作者项目网络（GNSWP），这两个组织的总部都在苏格兰。我的目标是与这些小组中的一小部分发展更密切的合作——这取决于研究目标的需要或重叠。对被污名化的群体进行研究引发了一系列伦理问题，包括剥削或伤害。（菲普斯，2015；博帕尔，2015）。作为一名性工作者，在某种程度上，我可以站在这个项目所提出的问题的位置上发言，尽管作为一名白人和中产阶级记者，我的经历也是一种特权，我会反射性地参与其中。我参与了性工作和酷儿和跨性别活动家社区（由于边缘化，两者之间有重叠），这意味着我在性工作者群体中已经有了朋友和其他联系人——这将使我更容易接触到潜在的受访者，而不是更多的外部学者。我的意图是在项目开始之前，通过开放当前运动在政策和公众理解方面的需求和愿望，获得项目的批准。

Existing research on the relationship between UK sex workers and the state has so far failed to address a conflict at the heart of sex worker activism. In order to live viable lives, sex worker activists might be seen as being forced to appeal to governmentally-sanctioned channels for rights - in a form that could be labeled 'carceral' (Bernstein, 2012; Puar, 2007). Yet the movement's longstanding campaign for the full legal decriminalisation of consensual sex work may also be read as - at heart - an anti-state position. This project proposes a critical material investigation into the sex worker movement, exploring whether it might be situated in opposition to, and as a critique of, carceral activism. This intervention will begin by describing sex worker activism, looking at who sex worker activists are, and who their activism serves. I will also look at the broader relevance of this activism - exploring its wider social impact. I assert that the necropolitical framework formulated by Achille Mbembe, and applied by Jasbir Puar, Paul B. Preciado and others, is a key way to understand this undertheorized tension concerning sex work activism and how it relates to the state, enabling an engagement with regulatory legal models while setting up an anti-neoliberal, anti-nationalist standpoint.I have one preliminary research question: What and who does the contemporary UK sex workers' rights movement represent?Methodologically, this project will combine discourse analysis with social movement analysis. I will use an intersectional, queer and feminist methodology, drawing on the feminist epistomological work of Donna Haraway on 'situated knowledges', which challenges the idea of objective access to knowledge, and also looking to Kimberle Crenshaw, Sandra Harding and Aristea Fotopolou on intersectional methods. I will conduct around 25 semi-structured qualitative interviews with current or former sex worker rights activists, and use journalism and blogs, videos, leaflets, copy from activist webpages and policy papers as additional, complementary sources of data. With participants' informed consent, I will attend and observe group meetings, demos and more informal meet ups. In order to find interview participants, I am in the process of reaching out to five London-based organisations: the English Collective of Prostitutes, Sex Worker Open University (SWOU) the X-talk collective who run weekly sex worker breakfasts, East London Strippers' Collective (ELSC) and Sex Workers' Opera (SWO). I will also contact the Sex Workers' Alliance in Ireland and SCOT-PEP and the Global Network of Sex Worker Projects (GNSWP), both of which are based in Scotland. I aim to develop a closer collaboration with a small number of these groups - depending on need or overlap of research aims.Doing research with stigmatised groups raises a host of ethical issues, including exploitation or harm. (Phipps, 2015; Bhopal, 2015). As a sex worker I can to some extent speak from a position of situated or embodied knowledge of the issues raised by this project, though as a white and middle class journalist my experience is also one of privilege, which I will engage with reflexively. My involvement in sex working and queer and trans activist communities (between which there is overlap due to marginalisation) means that I already have friends and other contacts within sex worker groups - which will make it far more feasible for me to reach out to potential interviewees than for more outsider academics. My intention is to gain approval for the project before beginning it by opening it up to what the needs and desires of the movement currently are in terms of policy and public understanding.