Quality of Work in Prostitution and Sex Work. Introduction to the Special Section

Increasingly, prostitution and other activities in the sex industries have been conceptualised as forms of labour, or at least as income-generating activities. As labour, these activities are exposed to particular risks with respect to health, working conditions, exploitation and stigmatisation. However, research on the actual conditions and circumstances existing in these markets, remains limited. The present article introduces some of the main issues researchers may face when studying quality of work in the sex industry, and it does so by introducing and discussing the six pieces of research published in the Special Section Exploitation and Its Opposite. Researching the quality of working life in the sex industries’. Four main points are discussed as being central to this emerging field of research: methodological challenges, the inclusion of different market segments, consideration of migration issues, and the role of legislative regimes. The authors stress the importance of developing precise comparisons between different types of sex work, of engaging between qualitative and quantitative approaches to quality of work, and finally of looking beyond the industry, comparing sex work to other forms of work.