“
1-1-1901
Socioeconomic strategies and practices of women that work in the sex
industry | Jorien Hart
J
ORIEN
H
ART
“T
HE
M
ONEY THAT CAME TO US
WITH
A
LITTLE
BIT
OF
SADNESS
”
S
OCIOECONOMIC
STRATEGIES
AND
PRACTICES
OF
Research Master International Development Studies Graduate School of Social Sciences
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Thesis supervisor: Dr. Jacobijn Olthoff Local supervisor: María Arauco Crespo Second reader: Dr. Marie-Louise Janssen
Jorien Hart, 10422420 May 2014
Abstract
This thesis focuses on the socioeconomic strategies and practices of women that work in the sex industry in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It aims to challenge the dichotomous voluntary/forced division often used within discourse on sex work, a dichotomy that neglects the complexity and dynamics of sex workers’ experiences and realities. In order to move beyond this dichotomy, the Strategic Relational Approach (Jessop, 2005), the concept of multiple I-positions (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011) and the concept of identity-based social exclusion (Kabeer, 2005) are used to analyze how both structural and agential factors influence sex workers’ formulation of socioeconomic strategies and the interrelated work and non-work practices. This thesis draws on data from 21 semi-structured interviews with women that work in the sex industry, key informant interviews, trabajo de campo (street and indoor visits), observations and informal conversations, all collected during a four-month fieldwork period in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2013. Results show that for understanding the socioeconomic strategies of women that work in the Bolivian sex industry, both the negotiated and conflictive space of the ‘I’ (i.e. agential factors) and the enabling and constraining factors of the context (i.e. structural factors) have to been taken into account. In the formulation of socioeconomic strategies, the women reflect on different parts of their identities (spaces of the ‘I’) and on the strategically selective context in which they operate. Albeit recognizing that the women exercise agency in finding a solution to the economic necessity they face(d) and in their ability to move forward (the formulation of longer term objectives), this agency is conditioned by the Bolivian context (including identity-based exclusion) which limits the opportunities of these women. Future policy and research should thus move beyond the monochrome voluntary/forced division and, instead, pay attention to issues of identity and the relation between agency and context.
Acknowledgements
I am thankful for the many people who supported me throughout my thesis process. The support, encouragement, patience, and inspiration offered enabled me to finalize this thesis successfully. I would first like to thank Dr. Jacobijn Olthoff of the University of Amsterdam for her endless support throughout my thesis process. I am very thankful for the amount of time she took to revise and look over my thesis. Her words of encouragement but also her critical and honest feedback helped me in writing the best thesis possible.
I would also like to acknowledge ICCO Oficina Regional for giving me access to the field and their partner organizations in the Stepping Up Stepping Out program. I want to thank them for bringing me to the dentist on my first day, for looking after me while I was in the field, and making sure I was safe at all times. Especially, I want to acknowledge María Arauco Crespo who was my local supervisor during fieldwork. I want to thank her for thinking along with me about how to conduct my research, for her practical assistance and feedback. I also thank her for her optimism and encouragement throughout fieldwork.
I would like to acknowledge three organizations for their assistance with the collection of my date. First of all, I would like to thank the Hermanas Adoratrices for making me part of the work they are doing. A special thanks goes to Erika Ramirez who took me on many trabajos de campo. Erika made sure I could talk to many women, explained to me the complex world of the sex industry and always looked for ways to help me. Secondly, I would also like to thank ONAEM for welcoming me to many events organized for female sex workers and for introducing me to their compañeras. I want to thank
Eva Flores and Marlene Caero for helping me in gaining access to key informants and establish a
network of contacts. Last but not least, I want to thank the organization Ruway Ñanta for helping me to get access to respondents, but also for offering me a place of distraction, when I was welcomed at the daycare Rayitos del Sol to play with the children. A special thanks goes out to Ruben, for the several trabajos de campos and for the many afternoons we discussed and talked about my research. I also want to thank my dear friends and family for their endless encouragement and support. I am also grateful for the numerous coffee moments I had with friends and fellow students in the library. These little moments made this lengthy process a lot more fun and relaxing.
Lastly, I want to thank all the women that have participated in this research. Without their support, completing this research would not have been possible. I want to thank them for their confidence and openness about their lives and for the love and interest they expressed. I also want to thank them for their patience with my somewhat poor Spanish. I want to acknowledge that they have opened my eyes and challenged the perspective I had of female sex workers and the sex industry.
¡Muchas gracias!
List of Abbreviations
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency System
AASC Hermanas Adoratrices Esclavas del Santisimo Sacramento y de la Caridad HIV Human Immunedeficiency Virus
ONAEM Organización Nacional de Activistas por la Emancipación de la Mujer SRA Strategic Relational Approach
STI Sexually Transmitted Infection(s)
TMSA Transformational Model of Social Activity UMSS Universidad Mayor de San Simon
List of Figures
Figure 1: Strategic Relational Approach (Hay, 2002: 131) ………. 17
Figure 2: Conceptual framework, adapted from Hay (2002) ……… 28
Figure 3: Motel San Pablo on Calle Junin ..……… 47
Figure 4: Bus terminal in Cochabamba .……….... 48
Figure 5: Area around 'el avión' - the airplane ……….………. 49
List of Tables Table 1: Key characteristics interviewed female sex workers ….……….……… 46
Table of Content ABSTRACT ... 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ... 5 LIST OF FIGURES ... 5 LIST OF TABLES ... 5 1. INTRODUCTION ... 8 1.1STATEMENT OF PROBLEM ... 8 1.2SCIENTIFIC RELEVANCE ... 10 1.3SOCIAL RELEVANCE... 11 1.4THESIS OUTLINE ... 12 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 13
2.1CRITICAL REALISM AND THE STRUCTURE/AGENCY DEBATE ... 13
2.1.1 Strategic Relational Approach (SRA)... 17
2.2THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF IDENTITY AND THE DYNAMIC INTERPLAY WITH THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SPHERE ... 19
2.3THE PROBLEMATIC MAINTENANCE OF BOUNDARIES BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SPHERE ... 22
2.4SOCIAL EXCLUSION ... 25
2.5CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ... 27
3. RESEARCH METHODS ... 30
3.1RESEARCH QUESTIONS ... 30
3.2RESEARCH TECHNIQUES ... 31
3.2.1 Supporting organizations: Ruway Ñanta, ONAEM and AASC ... 32
3.2.2 Trabajo de campo, observations and informal conversations ... 33
3.2.3 Survey ... 34
3.2.4 Semi structured interviews ... 35
3.3DATA ANALYSIS ... 37
3.4LIMITATIONS ... 37
3.5ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ... 38
4. SETTING THE CONTEXT: BOLIVIA AND COCHABAMBA ... 40
4.1LEGAL APPROACH TO SEX WORK: RIGHTS AND STRUGGLES ... 41
4.2SOCIOECONOMIC CONTEXT OF SEX WORK IN BOLIVIA ... 42
4.3GENDER ROLES IN BOLIVIA: SEXUALITY AND MOTHERHOOD ... 44
4.4RESEARCH LOCATION:COCHABAMBA AND THE RESEARCH POPULATION ... 46
4.4.1 Grupo Libertad ... 48
4.4.2 Bus terminal & Calle 25 de Mayo ... 49
4.4.3 Brothels ... 50
4.4.4 Clubs ... 51
5. WHO AM I? MULTIPLE I-POSITIONS AND MOTIVATIONS ... 53
5.1I AM A MOTHER ... 54
5.2I AM A GIRLFRIEND/WIFE ... 58
5.3I AM A FAMILY-MEMBER ... 62
5.4I AM A FEMALE SEX WORKER ... 66
5.5AM IEXCLUDED?PRIVILEGING AND CONCEALING IDENTITIES ... 70
6. CONSTRAINED AGENCY? WOMEN’S SOCIOECONOMIC STRATEGIES AND PRACTICES ... 73
6.1NECESSITY?WOMEN’S ENTRANCE IN THE SEX INDUSTRY... 74
6.2WOMEN’S CONTINUANCE IN THE SEX INDUSTRY ... 80
6.2.1 The economic advantages of sex work ... 81
6.2.2 The disadvantages of sex work ... 86
6.2.3 Limited or no other employment opportunities ... 88
6.3CONCLUDING REMARKS ... 89
7. CONCLUSIONS ... 90
7.1MAIN FINDINGS ... 90
7.2THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ... 93
7.3POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS ... 94
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 96
APPENDICES ... 100
APPENDIX 1,INTERVIEW GUIDE ... 100
1. Introduction
“We dedicate our lives. The most important thing is that we were able to fight for our children, to fight for their benefit. (…) The money that came to us always came with a little bit of sadness, with an insult, but we have succeeded.” 1 – Silvia
Silvia is a 48-year old woman that works as a female sex worker on the streets in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Before entering into the sex industry, she worked as a teacher on a primary school. But, after divorcing her husband, the responsibility for raising her children and sustaining the household fell on the shoulders of Silvia. The income generated by working on a primary school appeared to be insufficient to fulfill these responsibilities. Via a friend, Silvia became aware of the income she could generate through working in the sex industry. Today, Silvia is working in the sex industry for already 12 year.
1.1 Statement of problem
The story of Silvia shows that women’s decision to enter into sex work, might be voluntary, but, at the same time, are conditioned by complex personal and contextual aspects that limit opportunities. Within discourses about sex work, a dichotomous division is often made between voluntary and forced sex work. Forced sex work mainly refers to the overt coercion by a third party (e.g. by pimps) of persons into prostitution and to the physical, sexual and psychological violence related to sex work. Most states claim that forced sex work should be abolished. Voluntary sex work refers to the recognition of sex work as a form of labor and emphasizes the human right to self-determination. Voluntary sex work also suggests that women have a number of options open of which sex work appears to be the best one (Doezema, 1998). But, this story shows that the distinction between voluntary and forced sex work is not as clear-cut as generally theorized. Indeed, as Sandy (2007) points out, the distinction often conceals “the complex, cyclical and dynamic relation of choice and coercion” (Sandy, 2007: 199). In the research of Sandy on Cambodian female sex workers, it appears that many female sex workers face structural constraints, in terms of the socioeconomic context in which they are embedded, that limit their choices and influence their entrance in the sex industry. Also Kempadoo argues that the dichotomy is inappropriate for describing the experiences of sex workers “as neither explanations separately do justice to the complexity of the various situations” (Kempadoo, 1998: 99).
There are at least two dangers in the simplification of the complex voluntary/forced dichotomy. First of all, the danger of an approach that follows the voluntary/forced dichotomy is that states could persecute, criminalize and deny the labor rights and equal protection of sex workers in the name of fighting forced sex work (such as human trafficking) (Doezema, 2002: 24). This voluntary/forced dichotomy is often found in countries, such as Bolivia, which implement a regulatory approach towards sex work. Many organizations working from this dichotomy still tend to focus mainly on the ‘innocent victims of forced prostitution’, in order to gain sympathy for the sex workers’ case. Accordingly, sex workers’ human rights and the structures that violate these rights are still largely unaddressed. “The ‘voluntary’ prostitute is not condemned – she is ignored” (Doezema, 1998: 45).
The second danger of the voluntary/forced dichotomy in sex work is that it implicitly creates divisions between sex workers. “The ‘voluntary’ prostitute is often associated with a Western sex worker, seen as capable of making independent decisions about whether or not to sell sexual services, while the sex worker from a developing country is deemed unable to make this same choice: she is passive, naïve and ready prey for traffickers” (Doezema, 1998: 42). The dichotomy between forced and voluntary sex work could also reproduce the Madonna-Whore division among sex workers. Hereby, the Madonna is the forced sex worker, who is pardoned for her sexual activities because of her status as victim. The Whore is the voluntary sex worker, who refuses victim status and is seen as guilty and deserving what she gets. It links to the concept of a woman’s dishonor, which is determined by a woman’s sexual activities (Robillard, 2010: 529).
As a response to these stereotypes and the continuing stigmatization, ‘voluntary’ sex workers attempt to gain sympathy through emphasizing their unfortunate position in society, which is marked by heavy economic hardship (Vanwesenbeeck, 2001; Peng, 2005). Peng points out that the ‘poverty as force’ rationale is often used “to prove, first, that certain prostitutes are forced into this line of work and, second, that they are ‘eligible’ for human rights protection” (Peng, 2005: 20). The ‘poverty as force’ rationale is used by sex workers to gain sympathy for their unfortunate position in society and to justify their involvement in sex work. However, this emphasis on the ‘poverty as force’ rationale undermines the claim of sex workers to view sex work as any other form of labor, reinforces the deeply rooted stigmatization and discrimination, and it condemns those sex workers who are not driven by severe poverty. In sum, the voluntary/forced dichotomy does not do justice to the complexity of the stories of women that work in the sex industry and often reinforces structures that discriminate and violate sex workers’ human rights. As Koken (2012) puts it, the experiences of women engaged in sex work are diverse and confront the simplistic narratives of ‘victimization’ or ‘liberation’ (Koken, 2012: 210).
In this thesis, I will dive into this complex and dynamic nature of female sex workers’ experiences, against the background of often dire circumstances, in the specific context of Cochabamba, Bolivia. I will focus on the socioeconomic strategies of women that work in the sex industry in this city and, especially, on their entrance and continuance in the sex industry. Thereby, I will look at how both agential and structural factors, and both identity and context influence decision-making processes of these women in determining their socioeconomic strategies and, subsequently, their daily work and non-work practices.
In this thesis, the labels ‘sex work’ and ‘sex worker’ are used, recognizing sex work as a form of labor or income-generating activity for men and women. Sex workers are hereby viewed as working people, whose sense of self and identity is not solely defined by their work (Kempadoo, 1998: 3). The label ‘prostitution’ is often conflated with coerced entrance into the sex industry and, therefore, sex workers’ organizations have expressed the need to refer to ‘sex work.’ Regarding sex work as a legitimate form of labor, which requires the incorporation of certain elements of labor rights, “would grant Third World women the same degree of self-awareness, autonomy, and agency that is taken as self-evident for Western women” (Doezema, 2002: 25). Using the term ‘sex work(er)’ also allows me to bypass the negative connotations attached to the term ‘prostitute’ in the Bolivian society.
1.2 Scientific relevance
This thesis draws strongly from the Strategic Relational Approach (SRA), developed by Bob Jessop (2005), to examine the socioeconomic strategies of women that work in the Bolivian sex industry. The SRA takes into account both the enabling and constraining power of structures and the reproductive and transformative power of agency, which influence the actor’s decision-making process in terms of socioeconomic strategies and daily practices. Drawing from the SRA enables me to move beyond the monochrome division between voluntary and forced sex work and, instead, to pay attention to both ‘agency’ and ‘structure’ in analyzing the reasons and motivations of the women for working in the sex industry (Phoenix, 2000).
This thesis also addresses the concept of identity-based social exclusion (Kabeer, 2005). Identity-based social exclusion refers to the process of cultural devaluation of a group of people (in this case, sex workers) by virtue of who they are or who they are perceived to be. Using this concept enables me to discuss the effect of the stigma and discrimination associated with the sex industry on the women’s sense of identity, capacity for agency and, consequently, their socioeconomic strategies. Similar to the SRA, this concept of identity-based social exclusion recognizes the relation
between ‘structure’ (i.e. sex work as stigmatized occupation) and ‘agency’ and could, thus, be added as another layer to the strategically selective context in the SRA.
In this thesis, the concept of multiple I-positions, as part of the Dialogical Self Theory (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011), is also incorporated. Connecting the SRA to the concept of multiple I-positions appeared to be relevant and innovative in researching the socioeconomic strategies of women that work in the sex industry. This connection enables me to examine the complex interplay between the different parts of an individual’s identity connected to his/her performance in society. Put differently, particular situations and contexts induce specific parts of someone’s identity and, thus, specific actions and expressions.
By using the SRA, the concept of identity-based social exclusion and the concept of multiple I-positions to analyze socioeconomic strategies, as opposed to the earlier mentioned voluntary/forced dichotomy, this study offers a scientific contribution by offering new bits of knowledge on the aspects that play a role in the decision-making processes of women that work in the sex industry.
1.3 Social relevance
The last question I asked during interviews, with the women in my research, was: ‘What would you like to say to people in the Bolivian society about your profession? What should they know about sex work?’ Most responses included a request for less discrimination towards sex workers and the idea that people should not judge them, but instead become aware of the women’s motivations for working in the sex industry.
The Bolivian state follows a regulatory approach towards sex work, whereby sex work has been recognized as a form of labor which men and women can deliberately choose for. However, sex workers continue to be the scapegoats of society and sex work remains stigmatized. Sex workers’ organizations in Bolivia dedicate themselves to improve the labor conditions of sex work, to ascertain the respect for human and labor rights of sex workers, but also to increase society’s awareness that many sex workers are poor people struggling to survive. The Organización Nacional de Activistas por
la Emancipación de la Mujer (in short, ONAEM) is one of these organizations. One of their political
statements is:
“We dedicate ourselves to sex work because in countries like ours this is one of the very few options for poor females to make a living. Our ideal world is one free of the economic desperation that forces women into this business. [Until this ideal world appears,] we will fight tooth and nail for the rights we deserve” (Friedman-Rudovsky, 2007).
As mentioned, this thesis focuses on the dynamic nature of sex workers’ socioeconomic strategies, whereby both structural and agential (including identity) factors are taken into account. Through this study, I hope to contribute to the process of awareness-raising about the motivations and reasons of women to enter and continue working in the sex industry. One research objective then is that the women’s voices and perspectives will be heard through this thesis, challenging existing stereotypes and stigmas and discriminatory practices in the Bolivian society. Also for future policy, it is important that these perspectives are heard and taken into account. In the final chapter of this thesis, more policy-oriented recommendations will be provided, where I suggest to target a broader group of women that work in the sex industry and to carefully examine contextual aspects for future policy. Practically, this also means sharing this study with employees of the supporting organizations in Bolivia (see Section 3.2.1 for a description) and with my local supervisor María Arauco Crespo. Personally, through spending time and talking with these women, my personal judgments were challenged and I came to see the women behind the masks, often loving mothers who are willing to do anything for the wellbeing of their children.
1.4 Thesis outline
This thesis will be structured a follows. In Chapter 2, I will discuss the main theories from which this research derives. To understand the complex reality of women that work in the sex industry, I will explore three main concepts or theories: (i) the concepts ‘structure’ and ‘agency’ and the Strategic Relational Approach; (ii) the concept of multiple I-positions of individuals; and (iii) the concept of identity-based social exclusion. In Chapter 3, the research questions that have structured this research will be addressed. Thereafter, the research techniques used during fieldwork (including an introduction to the organizations that supported me), the methods of analysis, the limitations of the research and ethical considerations will be discussed. In Chapter 4, three different aspects of the Bolivian context of sex work are addressed, deriving from recognition of the constraining powers of structures that might inform the women’s realities. These aspects are: (i) the legal approach to sex work; (ii) the socioeconomic context; and (iii) Bolivian ideas about gender roles and sexuality. Thereafter, I will provide a brief description of the five work locations of my respondents. Chapter 5 (the first results chapter) discusses the different parts of the women’s identity, including that of a mother, a girlfriend/wife, a family member and a female sex worker, and the tension that arises between these parts. Chapter 6 (the second results chapter) discusses the women’s entrance and continuance in the sex industry and how this could be seen as a socioeconomic strategy informed by a number of factors. Chapter 7 begins by reflecting on the major research findings. Thereafter, it also gives some theoretical conclusions and suggestions for future research and policy makers.
2. Theoretical framework
In the introduction, I argued that we have to move beyond the voluntary/forced dichotomy, because it does not do justice to the complexity of the stories of women that work in the sex industry. There exists a more dynamic relation between the women’s agency and the context in which they are situated and this relation could explain the women’s motivations for entering and continuing in the sex industry. In order to address this dynamic relation between agency and structure, this research derives from a Critical Realist ontological and epistemological position. In the following sections, I will first discuss critical realism and the debate surrounding structure and agency. Thereby, I will introduce the Strategic Relational Approach (SRA), an approach developed by Bob Jessop (2005). Thereafter, I will look at theory about individuals’ multiple identities and roles within society and its links to diversified practices in the public and private sphere, followed by a discussion on processes of inclusion and exclusion, whereby gender and power relations will be taken into account. Finally, I will present my conceptual framework, as based on the presented theories.
2.1 Critical Realism and the structure/agency debate
In the explanation of political and social phenomena, such as sex workers’ experiences, one faces the question whether to emphasize structure and/or agency. Structure and agency are often presented as oppositional, i.e. “the extent to which we appeal to agential factors in an explanation is the extent to which we regard structural factors as incidental and vice versa” (Hay, 2002). Before further diving into this discussion on the relation between structure and agency, structure and agency will first be defined on their own. Numerous definitions of structure and agency have been provided within the literature, referring to different themes, such as political behavior (Hay, 2002), sexual agency of young people (Bell, 2011) or teachers as agents of change (Lopes Cardozo, 2011). Hay, who contributed to the Strategic Relational Approach (SRA; see section 2.1.1), provides the following definitions of structure and agency:
“Structure basically means context and refers to the setting within which social, political
and economic events occur and acquire meaning. (…) [It also refers to] the ordered nature of social and political relations – to the fact that political institutions, practices and routines and conventions appear to exhibit some regularity or structure over time (Hay, 2002: 94).”
“Agency refers to action, (…) conduct. It can be defined simply, as the ability or capacity of an actor to act consciously and, in so doing, to attempt to realize his or her intentions. The term agency tends to be associated with a range of other concepts, notably reflexivity (...), rationality (…), and motivation (ibid.: 95).”
There are different approaches within the structure/agency debate that propose emphasizing either structure or agency or a certain middle ground between the two. First of all, there is structuralism. From a structuralist perspective, explanations of social and political phenomena should be done exclusively in terms of contextual or structural factors. Although referred to minimally in the social sciences, structuralist tendencies can be found in various theories and approaches, such as system theory and new institutionalism. But structuralism is criticized for failing to acknowledge actors’ influence upon the course of social and political events and for presenting a passive image of human beings whose behavior is entirely predictable. It is mostly accused of posing a fundamental contradiction and inconsistency, whereby one could wonder how, if the structuralist perspective were valid and we indeed are mere expressions of the context we are in, we could express structuralism or hope to know about these structures. This would in fact suggest a privileged position for the theorist (Hay, 2002: 102-109). Therefore, a structuralist perspective is considered unsuitable when researching the practices and strategies of people, as it leaves them theoretically devoid of agency, responsibility and rationality and unable to influence the course of their lives (Sanders, 2005).
Second, and on the other side of the structure/agency debate, there is intentionalism which is an approach that identifies the perspective of actors as crucial in understanding the course of social and political phenomena. Intentionalism stresses the ability of actors to realize their intentions and, hence, in explaining social and political processes, the direct intentions, motivations and self-understandings of actors should be analyzed. From an intentionalist perspective, a relevant structural factor to be taken into account is the behavior of other actors, as this behavior might lead to reconsidering one’s actions. In certain modes of analysis, intentionalism is often linked to two other tendencies, namely presentism (the tendency to remove certain moments from its historical context and instead concentrating upon the present moment) and contextual parochialism (the tendency to analyze and isolate one particular situation in its own terms and to reject drawing general or transferable conclusion). However, intentionalism fails “to consider both the structural constraints on the ability of actors to realize their intentions and the structural consequences of their actions” (Hay, 2002: 112).
As neither structuralism nor intentionalism can adequately explain human behavior, various theorists have sought to find some middle ground, integrating both structural and agential factors in
the explanation of social and political phenomena. In the late 1970s, Anthony Giddens, Margaret Archer and Roy Bhaskar, among others, sought to find such a middle ground and they based their theories on an ontological core which mainly acknowledged the relationship between structure and agency, actor and context. This includes the perception that actors are placed within a structured context, with unevenly distributed opportunities and constraints, which influences actors’ ability to realize their intentions. At the same time, this structured context and the development over time is affected by the consequences of the action of those actors.
One author who contributed particularly interesting insights to the idea that structure and agency are related and influence each other is Anthony Giddens. According to Giddens’ structuration theory, structure and agency should be viewed as being mutually constitutive, internally related and part of a duality. Two main concepts guide this theory: duality of structure and structuration. Duality of structure refers to “structure as the medium and outcome of the conduct it recursively organizes” (Hay, 2002: 119). Thereby, structure contains reproduced and deeply sedimented rules and resources that either facilitate or constrain actions. Agents are assumed to possess skills that help them in using these rules and resources to reproduce the social order (Jessop, 2005: 45). Structuration refers to “the structuring of social relations across time and space, in virtue of the duality of structure” (Hay, 2002: 119). Accordingly, the structuration theory focuses on processes of change, whereby both structure and agency are mutually and directly implicated. Hereby, Giddens draws an image of a coin, whereby structure and agency are opposite faces of the same coin. This implies that one can only view one side of the coin at a time, that is, view the world from either a structuralist or agential perspective, incapable of apprehending the real duality. Especially on this point of the coin analogy, i.e. bracketing either structure or agency, Giddens’ structuration theory has been criticized. As structuration theory temporarily isolates action from structure and vice versa, it is accused of not being able to recognize “the differential capacities of actors to change different structures in one way rather than another. Nor (...) does he consider the differential temporalities (and spatialities) of structures as emergent properties of social relations in their interaction with other features of the natural and social worlds” (Jessop, 2005: 45).
A second author, Margaret Archer, a philosophical realist, contributed to the debate about the relation between structure and agency by coining the distinction between elisionist and emergenist theoretical orientations. Archer argues that Giddens’ structuration theory follows an elisionist theoretical orientation (i.e. an orientation which says that the social and the individual cannot be separated) which falsely presents structure and agency as comprising a duality. Instead of understanding structure and agency as being mutually constitutive (elisionist orientation), an emergenist theoretical orientation focuses upon the interplay between structure and agency over time. Accordingly, Archer argues structure and agency are related, albeit ontologically
independent. Hereby, Archer perceives that structures pre-exist people and pre-date social actions which either serve to transform or reproduce those structures. The intended and unintended consequences for the structures necessarily post-date those actions (Hay, 2002: 124). Archer’s theory is being criticized for neglecting “the complex spatio-temporalities of structures, strategic contexts, and social practice and their contingent articulation” (Jessop, 2005: 48) by operating solely with past, present and future tenses.
The third author that contributed to finding a middle ground between structure and agency is Roy Bhaskar. In order to deal with the question of structure and agency, Bhaskar’s transformational model of social activity (TMSA) distinguishes between ‘society’ and ‘people’. In his view, “society is both the ever-present condition (material cause) and [the] continually reproduced
outcome of human agency” (Jessop, 2005: 47). This suggests a continuous dialogue between society
and people, whereby specific practices are both enabled and constrained by the occupied societal positions of people as agents. Bhaskar’s TMSA is criticized for neglecting space and for representing structure and agency in a simplistic manner, distinguishing between society and people and ignoring specific sets of structural constraints and different kinds of social forces (ibid.).
In sum, whereas Giddens’ structuration theory emphasizes the mutual constitution of structure and agency, denying the separability of the two, Archer’s morphogenetic theory and Bhaskar’s TMSA recognize the ontologically separateness of structure and agency and concentrate instead upon the interplay of structure and agency over time. For the sake of my research, it is important to note that the theories of Archer and Bhaskar are grounded in a ‘critical realist’ approach, which claims that the world is structured in such a way that it “exhibits a separation of appearance and reality” (Hay, 2002: 122). As I already pointed out in the beginning of the chapter, ‘critical realism’ is the ontological and epistemological position this research is built upon and I will now further discuss this position.
Critical realism perceives the world as existing independently from our thoughts of it. Thereby, a distinction could be made between the intransitive and transitive dimension of knowledge. The intransitive dimension of knowledge refers to objects of science, i.e. the things that we study, such as social phenomena. The transitive dimension of knowledge refers to rival theories and discourses about these objects of science, i.e. theories about the world. Although theories about the world might change (transitive dimension), this does not necessarily mean that what these theories are about changes as well (intransitive dimension). Thus, this implies that “the world should not be conflated with our experience of it” (Sayer, 2000: 11). By its very nature, critical realism assumes that social forms pre-exist individuals and shape the actions of individuals. People’s interpretation and experiences of these social forms can differ and, consequently, may reproduce or transform that reality (Jessop, 2005). These elements clearly draw on the morphogenetic approach
of Archer which also assumes the pre-existence of structure as a condition of individual action. These elements also reproduce the claim of Bhaskar about a continuous dialogue between society and people.
Accordingly, within critical realism, a distinction has been made between the real, the actual and the empirical. The real refers to whatever exists, independently of our experience of it, and to the realm, the structures and underlying powers of social forms. The actual refers to what happens if and when these structures and powers are activated. The empirical or the observable refers to the domain of our experience, which might provide an understanding of, albeit unobservable, existing social forms (Sayer, 2000; Jessop, 2005). In line with this distinction, critical realists argue that not all structures and powers are observable, but, by observing and experiencing effects and outcomes as results of those unobservable structures and powers, a plausible case can be made for its existence. In addition, critical realists acknowledge the possibility that some powers and structures may remain unexercised. Accordingly: “the nature of the real objects present at a given time constrains and enables what can happen but does not pre-determine what will happen” (Sayer, 2000: 12).
Critical realists argue that it is possible to attain an understanding of the nature and properties of social forms, mainly via qualitative analysis and description. As Sayer puts it, “since social phenomena are dependent on actors’ conceptions of them, we already have ‘internal access’ to them, albeit a fallible access” (Sayer, 2000: 18). In addition, critical realists argue that these conceptions and meanings of social phenomena are construed in particular material circumstances and practical contexts in which interaction takes place, referring to the earlier addressed pre-existence of social forms (Jessop, 2005).
This research derives from a critical realist perspective. It adopts an intensive approach with a main focus on the why and how of female sex workers’ practices and strategies as situated in particular social forms and structures. Hereby, the sensitivity of people to their contexts is emphasized, “which derives particularly from our ability to interpret situations rather than merely being passively shaped by them” (Sayer, 2000: 13). The question now is how these kinds of questions can best be examined. In this research, I adopt the Strategic Relational Approach (SRA), developed by Colin Hay (2002) and Bob Jessop (2005) to examine these questions. This approach takes both the enabling and constraining power of structures and reproductive and transformative power of agency into account. In the next section, the SRA will be explained further.
2.1.1 Strategic Relational Approach (SRA)
The SRA concentrates upon “the dialectical interplay of structure and agency in real contexts of social and political interaction” (Hay, 2002: 127). It acknowledges that, albeit analytically separable,
structure and agency purely exist through their relational interaction. The SRA identifies strategic actors within strategically selective contexts, concepts in which structure and agency are mutually implicated. Referring to strategic actors, the SRA implies that actors are conscious, reflexive and strategic and that they may act either purposively to realize their intentions and preferences or intuitively and/or out of habit. The strategically selective context refers to the idea that “a given structure may privilege some actors, some identities, some strategies, some spatial and temporal horizons, and some actions over others” (Jessop, 2005: 48).
As mentioned earlier, actors’ sensitivity to the context suggests their ability to oversee the immediate and long-term consequences of their actions and, through reflecting on these consequences, their capability to devise and revise their course of action as a means of realizing their intentions. Put differently, strategic action is motivated by the actors’ intention to realize certain outcomes and objectives and informed by a strategic assessment of the context in which this potential course of action will occur. Accordingly, the perception of actors of the strategic context in which they are situated and the awareness of the opportunities and constraints this context provides influences their strategic action. Thereby, strategy can be defined as: “intentional conduct oriented towards the environment in which it is to occur” (Hay, 2002: 129). The SRA does not imply that “all action is the product of overt and explicit and strategic calculation (…), [but that] all action contains at least a residual strategic moment though this need not be rendered conscious” (ibid.: 132). The SRA is outlined in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Strategic Relational Approach (Hay, 2002: 131)
To summarize, the SRA opens up place for both the subjective realities of individuals, paying attention to their perceptions of reality, and for the constraining power of structures, as each individual is placed within particular contexts that inform their actions (Jessop, 2005).
Strategic actor (individual or collective)
Effects of action: enhanced strategic knowledge; strategic learning Strategic calculation: formulation of strategy within context Strategic action Strategically selective context
Effects of action: partial transformation of context
I consider this approach useful in examining female sex workers’ socioeconomic strategies and practices. It recognizes the complex and dynamic interplay between the context in which these women are situated, with its specific constraints and opportunities, and the strategies they formulate for themselves within these contexts. As Kempadoo points out, when examining the notion of sex work, we should pay attention to “the simultaneity of structures of domination and female agency as well as of the multifaceted strategies that Third World and other non-Western women employ to get by in their everyday lives” (Kempadoo, 1999: 226). Thus, this research seeks to unravel how women are able to combine the different spheres of their lives, the public and the private, while experiencing constraints by the cultural and socioeconomic context in which they are situated.
2.2 The conceptualization of identity and the dynamic interplay with the public and private sphere
In the previous section, I have discussed the complex relationship and interplay between structure and agency and introduced the SRA and its background. In this section, we will turn to another set of theories that will help me analyze the question of how identity plays a role in the formulation of strategies and practices. Thereby, I will introduce the Dialogical Self Theory which recognizes the dynamic and complex interplay between context and agency in the construction of identity.
The conceptualization of self and identity have been a century-long debate in philosophy and the social sciences. At the beginning of the 19th century, identity and self were mainly viewed as “a singular, unified, stable essence that was little affected by context or biography” (Day et al., 2006: 602). Thereby, it was assumed that each individual develops a defining, constant system of concepts, which would enable the generation of his/her unique world vision. Deriving from this perspective, Charles Horton Cooley (1902; in Day et al., 2006) developed the idea of the ‘looking glass self’, which recognized that the perceived opinion of others and self-awareness are closely linked to the construction of self, now seen as a reflexive learning process. Correspondingly, George Herbert Mead (1934) argued that the self, though stable, was part of a reflexive process, in which an individual “could take on different approaches to different social experiences based on the particular part played by the individual” (ibid.: 602). Thereby, Mead developed the concept of a ‘generalized other’ to address the need of social communication in the construction of self, whereby an individual learns to assume the roles of others and reflects on his actions accordingly (Beijaard et al., 2003: 107). But, both Cooley and Mead do not acknowledge or consider individuals’ lives to be multifaceted.
In 1959, Erving Goffman argued that each individual had a number of ‘selves’, each one focusing on the performance of a particular role at any given situation or time. Thereby, each individual should have the ability to play a role, i.e. adapt to any particular situation, in order to effectively communicate and convince his audience. As Goffman puts it: “When an individual appears
before others, his actions will influence the definition of the situation which they come to have (...) [and] he will have many motives for trying to control the impression they receive of the situation” (Goffman, 1959: 18, 26). Reflecting on the professional identity of sex workers, Sanders (2005) assumes that Goffman’s perspective on individuals’ ability to play a particular role and consciously communicate to their audience might be useful in explaining how women move in and out of a work character, using emotion managing strategies. Nevertheless, Goffman’s theoretical perspective does not consider the continuous, lifelong development of self and identity, which may severely change over time.
A fundamental shift in defining identity and self is represented by postmodern thinkers, whereby identity was “no longer seen as an overarching and unified framework, but, instead, as being fragmented along with the multiple social worlds that people engage in” (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011: 309). Thus, the individual was placed back into the context of the social environment of which he/she is a part and identity came to be seen as a relational phenomenon. This corresponds with critical realism, in which people’s roles and identities in the social world are viewed as being internally related. In other words, “what one person or institution is or can do depends on their relation to others” (Sayer, 2000: 13). People’s interrelationships and the context in which they are situated, partially define the powers which they can draw upon. Following this postmodern thinking, Erik Homburger Erikson (1959) acknowledged that the formation of identity is a lifelong process. Thereby, Erikson focused on the different social contexts and the stages individuals pass through. Erikson identified three stages of adult life, characterized as crises, which provided insights into internal, conflicting forces that affect the formation of identity in particular life phases. This approach suggests that “identity is never gained nor maintained once and for all” (Day et al., 2006: 603).
Although it was praised for recognizing the multifaceted nature of an individual’s identity and the lifelong process of identity formation, postmodern thinking has also been criticized (i) for the inability to explain how individuals can maintain and have any sense of self and (ii) for the simplified assumption of socially determined behavior of individuals. We could wonder, “if one claims that identity shifts according to others and with social participation, how is it that persons can still act as ‘unique’ individuals, showing agency moving beyond the given context?” (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011: 310). Taking this question further, Akkerman and Meijer suggest that modern and postmodern conceptualizations of identity should be combined. This leaves place for assuming a ‘core identity’ that holds more uniformly across contexts, while simultaneously recognizing the multiple social worlds in which individuals participate that influence the formation of identity. Therefore, Akkerman and Meijer point at the Dialogical Self Theory, which assumes “a multiple, discontinuous and social nature of identity, while simultaneously explain identity as being unitary, continuous and individual” (ibid.).
In terms of multiplicity and unity, the Dialogical Self Theory presupposes that within each individual, multiple I-positions can be found, which all bring forward a specific viewpoint and story: “the ‘I’ moves from one to the other position and, as such, results in an identity that is continuously (re)constructed and negotiated” (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011: 311). Thus, the ‘I’ is a negotiated space, whereby at a particular I-position, other positions are always taken into account. It can also be a conflictive space, as the I in a particular I-position can agree, disagree, understand, misunderstand, question or challenge the I in another position. The coexistence of multiple I-positions highlights the dialogical relationship between different positions and the temporary dominance of a specific I-position. Applying this idea to women that are involved in sex work implies that they may move to a particular I-position during working hours, often associated with a specific professional pseudonym, while simultaneously taking into account their other I-position as mother. Castillo et al. (1999) explain that sex workers often maintain a focus on their family when working in order to preserve their health and self-respect. Thus, this multiplicity and unity of one’s identity shows how the lines between different aspects or contexts of a person’s life might become blurred and how someone’s I-position (or sense of self) in a particular context is informed by the other contexts in which he/she is situated.
In terms of discontinuity and continuity, the Dialogical Self Theory assumes that identity continuously changes according to the type of situation one finds oneself in, recognizing that particular situations induce specific parts of someone’s identity and, thus, specific actions and expressions. In order to maintain a sense of self (‘continuity’), individuals construct their identity through narration, that is: “they integrate old and new experiences, identify the ordinary and the exceptional, and give personal accounts expressing their intentions, interpretations, and evaluations in coherent chains of events” (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011: 313). Additionally, cultural and historical mediation and routinized personal behavior also play a role in securing continuity.
In terms of the social and individual, the Dialogical Self Theory recognizes the impact of the social environment on a person and conceives identity both as an intra-psychological process and as a relational phenomenon. Individuals and groups with whom someone interacts might encourage and discourage particular courses of action and those voices might become a more structural part of someone’s identity. In addition, someone’s world view is often informed by so called ‘significant others’. Thus, others might occupy a position in someone’s multi-voiced self. Accordingly, a distinction is drawn between ‘internal I-positions’ felt as part of myself (e.g. I am a mother) and ‘external positions within the self’ felt as part of someone’s environment (my children). Simultaneously, Watson (2009) acknowledges that the formation of identity is subject to a dynamic and complex interplay between “internal strivings and external prescriptions, between self-presentation and labeling by others, between achievement and ascription and between regulation
and resistance” (Watson, 2009: 426). Instead of focusing on either the internal or the external aspects of identity, Watson proposes that these internal and external aspects of identity formation (or ‘identity work’) should be seen as mutually constitutive.
Finally, it is good to point out that according to the Dialogical Self Theory, the internal and external positions within the self could mutually define one another (I am a mother because I have children), whereby “identity dialogically defines itself not only based on or by including others as positions within the self, but also by contrast with others that are part of what I am not” (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011: 315; original emphasis). Since every identity is composed of multiple and dialogically related I-positions, each individual could be viewed as unique and transcendent agents, as someone’s participation in one particular situation or community is always informed by varied and distinct positions related to others and other social environments.
To conclude, corresponding with the SRA, the Dialogical Self Theory recognizes the dynamic and complex interplay between an individual’s multiple I-positions connected to his/her performance in society (i.e., the impact of the context) and the individual’s ability to construct his/her identity and maintain a sense of self (i.e., unique and transcendent agency).
2.3 The problematic maintenance of boundaries between the public and private sphere
In the previous sections, we have seen that it is important to recognize the complex and dynamic interplay between structure and agency, also in the construction and the positioning of a person’s identity, when examining the formulation of strategies and practices. In this section, I will address the interrelated notion of the public and private sphere. It is a notion which turned out to be highly relevant during my research on women, particularly when it comes to understanding how the women working in the sex industry use the creation of a working identity, in order to maintain a clear boundary between their public (work) and private lives (non-work). Vanwesenbeeck (2000) addresses the creation of a work identity by explaining the idea of ‘self-programming into a work personality’: this involves “switching off the true self and going into remote control mode or adopting a role (Vanwesenbeeck, 2000: 269). This idea corresponds with the Dialogical Self Theory in terms of recognizing multiple I-positions between which the individual moves according to the particular situation in which he/she is operating. However, it assumes that the ‘real’ or ‘unitary’ self can be switched off, a view that the Dialogical Self Theory opposes by stating that an individual always takes different I-positions into account, while positioned in a particular situation.
Literature on women engaged in sex work points out that sex workers produce a working identity for the following reasons. First of all, a working identity enables them to construct a boundary between the personal/authentic self and the ‘work self’ presented to the client (Koken,
2012: 210). Sanders points out that this sex workers’ pseudonym is “an important stage prop that sex workers adopt in order to act their role and maintain a barrier between the character exposed to the client and what the women consider to be their ‘real’ personality” (Sanders, 2005: 330). Secondly, a working identity might be used as a business strategy, whereby the women portray a stereo-typical display of female sexuality that will likely result in financial gain. Thereby, women likely define their bodies (especially their vaginas) as rentable objects (Phoenix, 2000: 44). Thirdly, a working identity might also serve as a self-protection mechanism, as women do not want to reveal personal information to their clients. Sometimes they are afraid that clients are going to stalk them; other women fear that their families, partners and friends find out about their profession, as they work secretly in the sex industry. “They want to avoid association with the ‘whore stigma’, moral condemnation and nefarious stereotypes” (Sanders, 2005: 329). Thus, dominant society virtues about sex work and ideal gender positions might influence women’s decision what (not) to tell and to create a working identity. Castillo et al. argue that women should separate within themselves the roles of mother/caretaker and commercial sex worker, while simultaneously recognizing that these roles mutually influence their behavior in both spheres. The question is to what extent women internalize aspects of both the public and the private sphere in their personal and working identities (as I-positions).
Despite of this working identity, the boundary between the public and private often becomes blurred. Therefore, many women develop distancing strategies and ‘emotion work’ in order to maintain a sense of self. Through distancing strategies, sex workers attempt to locate their ‘real selves’ outside of the work environment and try to maintain the self-image that they are solely working in the sex industry for the economic rewards it offers. But, Brewis and Linstead (2000) argue that this distancing process is complicated due to the intensity and intimacy of their physical involvement in their work. The literature speaks in this respect about ‘emotion work’ and ‘depersonalization’, that is, “a kind of work where one has to act in a way that is known to be false or that actually transforms one’s feelings” (Vanwesenbeeck, 2000: 270). This emotion work might help sex workers in dealing with the tensions of selling sex. It is mainly associated with sex work under certain conditions, such as “a negative motivation for entering sex work, a lack of social support and negative social reactions to being a sex worker” (ibid.).
The following distancing strategies and ‘emotion work’ are mentioned. First of all, different authors mention body exclusion zones as a distancing strategy (Sanders, 2005; Bernstein, 2007; Brewis & Linstead, 2000). This means that certain parts of the body are kept off-limits, as these parts are considered too intimate to be sold or reserved for private sexual encounters. This also means that certain sexual acts (such as kissing) are not generally sold, as these acts are considered too painful or too intimate to be sold or simply too time-consuming. Second, condom use is defined as a
health protection mechanism and as a psychological barrier. Sanders points out that the use of a condom symbolized the absence of intimacy (Sanders, 2005: 326). Third, wearing specific work clothes, using make-up and bathing rituals also help women to act in and out of the work role. Fourthly, sex workers seek to attach different meanings to sex acts in the public sphere (professional sexual encounters) and sex acts in the private sphere (relational sexual encounters) (Sanders, 2005; Brewis & Linstead, 2000). Professional sexual encounters are viewed as “physical and uninvolved, and may involve making the client feel wanted” (Brewis & Linstead, 2000: 88), while relational sexual encounters are “reserved for partners and ‘being in love’” (ibid.). Thereby, professional sexual encounters might involve accepting any kind of client, emphasizing the irrelevance of personal feelings or attraction in the public sphere. This includes avoiding emotional relationships with (long-term) clients.
The maintenance of these boundaries between the public and private sphere remain problematic, due to the fact that “they are selling something which has not been fully commodified and which is usually associated with the non-commercial private sphere, governed as it is by values of intimacy, love and affect” (Brewis & Linstead, 2000: 89; see also, Cameron & Kullick, 2005). In addition, the boundary between the public and private sphere becomes blurred, when the exchanged sexual labor “is less defined by the sexual acts themselves and more likely to implicate one’s ‘private’ erotic and emotional life (Bernstein, 2007: 191). For example, in her research about love in sex work, Brennan (2008) points out that Dominican sex workers make strategic use of sexual labor by feigning romantic feelings for their foreign clients and by starting relationships por
residencia (for residence) (Brennan, 2008: 182).
To conclude, the Dialogical Self Theory assumes that each individual moves between different I-positions, dependent on particular situations in which he/she is operating. When looking at women that are involved in the sex industry, the literature suggests that these women attempt to maintain these different I-positions strictly separated, through different distancing strategies and emotion work. This desired separation is often informed by dominant societal prejudices about sex work and the associated stigmatization. But, the boundary between the public and private sphere becomes blurred because of the meaning attached to sexual acts and because of the maintained focus on family needs while working in the sex industry. I will now turn to the concept of social exclusion.
2.4 Social exclusion
In Bolivia, sex work is still considered as an undignified practice, portraying the selling of sex as a major immorality. This rests on the perception of sexuality as something sacralized and magnified. Consequently, sex workers often face marginalization and exclusion in practicing their profession, also through controlling measures. Hereby, a difference exists between women that work inside brothels or clubs and women that work out on the streets. Sex workers even become the scapegoats of society, scapegoats that are blamed for broader social frustrations which generally have nothing to do with them (Criales, 2006: 198). In order to examine the impact of social exclusion (linked to stigmatization) on the practices of women that work in the sex industry, I will look in this section in some more depth at the concept of ‘social exclusion’ and the way in which social exclusion can be explained by someone’s identity.
The concept ‘social exclusion’ emerged in the 20th century as a social issue in various poverty studies. Literature on ‘social exclusion’ points at René Lenoir, the Secretary of State for Social Action in the Chirac government in France, as the first one to introduce the term. Lenoir (1974, in: Wazed, 2012) considered the social excluded to be ‘social misfits’ and those unprotected by the welfare state (Wazed, 2012: 56). Others point out that the concept of social exclusion was developed by French sociologists and rooted in French Republican thought. Thereby, social exclusion was defined as a process of ‘social disqualification’ or ‘social disaffiliation’, which implies a broken relationship between society and the individual (ibid.; Bhalla & Lapeyre, 1997: 414). Since then, social exclusion has been defined by various authors in many different ways and it has been linked to many other concepts, such as poverty, inequality and identity.
Silver (1994) argues that there exist three paradigms of social exclusion. Each paradigm is grounded in a different political philosophy and explains social exclusion by reference to a different cause. First of all, the Solidarity paradigm is grounded in Republicanism and attributes social exclusion to the breaking down of the social bond, or social solidarity, between the individual and society. This paradigm refers to solidarity of nation, race, ethnicity, locality and other cultural or primordial ties that delimit boundaries between groups and that define certain individuals as outsiders. Secondly, the Specialization paradigm is grounded in liberalism and considers exclusion as a consequence of specialization. Specialization includes social differentiation, the economic division of labor and the separation of spheres. By claiming that every individual has different capabilities, this paradigm explains that every individual could belong to certain specialized markets and groups while being excluded from others. Thirdly, the Monopoly paradigm is grounded in the political philosophy of social democracy. This paradigm views exclusion as a consequence of the formation of
group monopolies, whereby hierarchical power relations (on the basis of class, status and political power) create boundaries between the included and the excluded.
The existence of these different paradigms show that “fighting exclusion means different things to different people” (Silver, 1994: 544). In the case of developmental agencies and in development studies, the concept of social exclusion has been used to understand and reduce poverty in the South (Wazed, 2012: 57). While poverty is concerned with ‘vertical distribution’ – being up or down – exclusion stresses ‘horizontal ties of belonging’ – being in or out (Silver, 2007: 4). These horizontal ties of belonging could bring about vertical distribution. Many conceptual and definitional disagreements arise in discussion of social exclusion and Silver (2007) rightfully points out that the term social exclusion is “vague, ambiguous and contested in meaning, allowing for its malleable, flexible application in many contexts at the cost of conceptual precision” (Silver, 2007: 18).
In this research, I adopt the social exclusion perspective of Kabeer (2005). This social exclusion perspective highlights “the experience of those individuals and groups who, in addition to their poverty, face discrimination by virtue of their identity, undermining their capacity to participate in the economic, social and political functionings of their society on equal terms” (Kabeer, 2005: 3). Thereby, it draws attention to the overlap between two different experiences of disadvantage. The first one is the resource-based experience of disadvantage (i.e., ‘what you have’) mainly referring to individual income or expenditure shortfalls. The second (and the one I am particularly interested in), is the identity-based experience of disadvantage (i.e., ‘who you are’) referring to “the devaluation of groups and categories of people in a society by virtue of who they are, who they are perceived to be” (Kabeer, 2005: 2; original emphasis). This process of cultural devaluation portrays these groups and categories of people as persons of lesser worth and it occurs on the basis of beliefs, values, attitudes and behavior that are embedded in discourses that have legitimacy in society (such as religion). Simultaneously, Ward emphasizes the importance of examining discursive practices that construct people as valued or devalued in the process of social exclusion. For social exclusion could be caused by “discrimination, stigmatization or negative social attitudes” (Ward, 2009: 242).
Identity-based exclusion includes group-based exclusions, for example on the basis of ethnicity, race or religion, and categorical forms of exclusion. These categorical forms of exclusion are determined by specific attributes of people, such as gender, age or stigmatized occupations. As mentioned earlier, sex work in Bolivia remains an undignified and stigmatized profession, which results in the exclusionary or discriminatory practices towards sex workers in society (Kabeer, 2005: 9). The problem of identity-based exclusion is that the negative and stigmatized image of a particular category of people affects their sense of social identity, their capacity for agency and their ability to exercise agency. Ward points out that “it is important to acknowledge that people may have to
privilege some aspects of their identity and conceal others in order to be accepted within different settings and that this itself may contribute to marginalization” (Ward, 2009: 245).
To sum up, social exclusion is a contested concept with multiple meanings. In this research, I adopt the social exclusion perspective of Kabeer, as it incorporates both resource-based and identity-based experiences of disadvantage. Especially the focus on identity-identity-based exclusion is rendered useful in this research. With identity-based exclusion, groups or categories of people in society, such as sex workers, are devalued by virtue of who they are or who they are perceived to be. Devaluation might lead to discrimination and undermine a person’s capacity to participate in society. This perspective enables me to examine the consequences of belonging to a stigmatized category of people on women’s agency and their socioeconomic strategies.
2.5 Conceptual framework
Based on the elements of this theoretical chapter, I have created a conceptual framework for my research. I draw strongly from the Strategic Relational Approach, but the framework also incorporates the concept of multiple I-positions and the concept of identity-based social exclusion. I will now describe which concepts are used in this conceptual framework and how they are interrelated. The conceptual framework is visualized in Figure 2.
First of all, I refer to women that work in the sex industry as strategic actors. These women are conscious, reflexive and strategic actors that may act either purposively to realize their intentions and preferences or intuitively and/or out of habit. Within each strategic actor, multiple I-positions can be found which all bring forward a specific viewpoint and story. At a particular I-position (while taking into account other I-positions), strategic actors could interpret and reflect on the context differently and have different motivations for actions. This process of continuous reflection is presented by the arrow between strategic actor and strategically selective contexts.
Secondly, strategic actors are embedded in strategically selective contexts. A strategically selective context refers to the idea that “a given structure may privilege some actors, some identities, some strategies, some spatial and temporal horizons, and some actions over others” (Jessop, 2005: 48). In this research, I focus on the following structural factors: a) the Bolivian legal approach to sex work, b) the socioeconomic context of sex work (including educational and employment opportunities), and c) ideas about gender roles and sexuality.
Thirdly, embedded in a strategically selective context, identity-based social exclusion could exist. This refers to the process of cultural devaluation of women that work in the sex industry by virtue of who they are or who they are perceived to be (because sex work is a stigmatized occupation in Bolivia). Cultural devaluation might lead to discrimination and undermine a person’s capacity to
