Critical discourse analysis
as societal analysis
The regulation of sex work in Vienna in the course of the
'Prostitution law 2011'
Franziska Wallner, BA Advisor: Barbara Heebels franziska.wallner@student.uva.nl Thesis project 'Geographies of Work' 10863761 Master's programme Human Geography
ABSTRACT
In my thesis I want to explore the workings of discourses regarding the regulation of sex work and the practical and spatial consequences for sex workers. Discourses are understood here as socially produced regulatory systems that serve the maintenance of societal relations – and hegemonic productions of space – through a system of reciprocal support. Language use is seen as social practice, hence the analysis of language is one way of critically researching society. As a case study I will research the recent situation in Vienna, where – due to the implementation of a new 'Prostitution law' in 2011 – sex work experienced drastic re-ordering and an overall tightening of former regulations. Most importantly, street sex work was largely constrained in the city as it was banned from residential areas. The legal changes have to be seen both in a global economic context of capitalist urban renewal strategies and in accordance to the current European trend of (re-)criminalization of sex work. The latter stands in close connection to the global North's increased fear of unregulated migration patterns and the urge to control and suppress them. With applying a critical discourse analysis it is possible to explain the function and power of discourses in this matter, particularly to find contradictions and disruptions that help to unmask latent power relations. Since this thesis is written in the tradition of critical geographies, one focus will be put on the constraints and potentials of sex workers agency.
I dedicate this thesis to all sex workers in Vienna, registered and unregistered, whose experiences are as diverse as life
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my advisor, Barbara Heebels, who accompanied this thesis project from the first ideas until the finished paper with patience, critical comments, valuable advice and improvement suggestions.
Next, I thank my interview participants who took their time and shared so much precious insights. I want to especially thank Helga Pregesbauer, Christian Knappik and Helga Amesberger for their tireless dedication promoting the rights of sex workers.
Special thanks go to my close colleagues and friends with whom I shared the whole process, countless hours in the library and even more coffee breaks. Without the continuous exchange and mutual motivation, this thesis would have never been finished. Thanks Stijn, Nathalia, Carmen and Francesca!
Of course I also thank my friends who were often not physically close, but still there and important in many different ways: Sophie, Clara, Lili, Neva, Flora, Anna, Stefan, and so many others.
I want to thank Mila and Rade for having welcomed me with open arms, for letting me be part of their family and for giving me so much support during the critical phase. Despite his request, I have to thank their son, who has been the greatest help of all. Not only for making me coffee, for everything.
Last but definitely not least I want to thank my family whose unconditional support was always my anchor and which provided me with the necessary self confidence to approach all small and big challenges in life, including this Master's programme. Thank you!
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Research questions 1.3 Structure of the thesis 2 Language
2.1 The role of language in the constitution of 'reality'
2.2 An English written thesis on a research field that is situated in a German speaking country
2.3 How I use language in this thesis and why 3 Relevance / Ethics / Limitations
3.1 Academic and Societal Relevance 3.2 Ethical aspects
3.3 Limitations 4 Theory
4.1 Feminist labour geographies 4.2 Sex work – a work like any other?
4.3 The sex worker as a symbol of difference 4.4 Legal approaches in the regulation of sex work 4.5 The production of space
4.6 The role of discourses for shifting geographies of sex work 4.7 Discourses and how to critically analyze them
5 Political and legal context in Vienna 6 Empirical part
6.1 Some reflections on the empirical, knowledge and positionality in general and within this research
6.2 Why I didn't include sex workers in my thesis project
6.3 Finding and analyzing discourses through multiple methods 6.3.1 The influence of the analysis on the choice of methods
6.3.2 The aggregated and generated material that provided the basis for my research
6.3.3 The process of finding interview participants and doing media research
7 Analysis
7.1 Viennese sex workers - “trafficked”, “dangerous” or central agents within an economic reality?
7.2 Street sex work in Vienna – “sprawling”, a scenery of violence, a displaced working sector?
8. Results 9. Conclusion
1.Introduction
“By underlying agency, resistances to, and contestations of, oppressive and exploitative structures are uncovered, and the visions and ideologies inscribed in women's practices made visible. Such analyses position sex workers as actors in the global arena, as persons capable of making choices and decisions that lead to transformations of consciousness and changes in everyday life.” (Kempadoo, 1998: 9)
“Spatial structures structure representations of the world as they are held in a taken-for-granted way. But value and meaning are not inherent in any space or place – indeed they must be created, reproduced, and defended from heresy.” (Creswell, 1996: 9)
This thesis will focus on the reciprocal relationship of the discursive and the material practices which shape the everyday lives of sex workers. These practices are informed by power relations and thus distinct notions about gender, sexuality, and hetero-normative behavior. However, it is important to have a sensitivity for further axes of establishing differences, such as racialization or ethnicization, since the specific mechanisms of social in- and exclusion can only be understood in the dynamic interplay of these structural categories (see Le Breton, 2011: 73). When focusing on sex work in the northern, western and southern parts of the European Union, this notion is especially important, as the large majority (around 70%) of sex workers in these countries are female migrant workers (see TAMPEP, 2009, 16f; Caixeta/Hamen/Mineva, 2012: 162ff). Within the field of sex work, street or outdoor-based sex work usually occupies a lower hierarchical rung as the legal situations often imply less safety and a higher degree of informality due to criminalization of these work spaces – and consequently of the workers themselves (see Grant, 2008: 61f). Furthermore, in the course of current economic and ideological developments across Europe, spaces of street sex work are more and more contested – even more than spaces of sex work that are located indoor – and sex workers are often exposed to displacement.
However, there is a fair amount of women1 who decide for working outdoor-based – both legally and illegally – as it provides certain advantages, like the possibility of working independently or not having fix costs (see interview Amesberger, 2015).
In 2011, after intense political – and allegedly public – debates, the Viennese government (build by the Social Democrats and the Green Party) passed a new law regarding sex work, which included a number of far reaching legal changes regarding sex work in Vienna, the so called 'Wiener Prostitutionsgesetz 2011' (following: WPG). The changes included the requirement of administrative authorization for brothels and the ban of street sex work in residential areas. Furthermore, the law contained an extenuated form of criminalization of clients, as it was now forbidden for clients to request sex work in prohibited zones (Amesberger, 2015; Gurtner, 2014: 1). Many experts within the field of sex work in Vienna conclude that it was the demand by certain groups of residents to displace street sex work, which ultimately lead to the new law. Hörtner summarizes the current situation for sex workers in Vienna as follows: “Most of the regulations deal with sex work in a repressive and criminalizing manner, and restrict legal workplaces for sex workers by prohibiting street prostitution or prostitution in sex workers' flats (for example). This leads to the displacement of sex workers to more marginalized and precarious workplaces as well as into the illegalized sector, with severe negative consequences.” (Hörtner, 2015: 27)
The development in Vienna follows a broader trend in EU Politics that seeks to reduce sex work and/or the demand for sex work, which is underpinned by an ideology that “...suggest[s] a link between prostitution and violence and (…) 1 I speak of 'women' here to acknowledge that sex work is still embedded in patriarchal structures with distinct gender relations. Consequently, sex work is still largely practiced by women, while the clients are almost exclusively men. (Kempadoo, 2005: ix) I certainly don't want to deny the manifold experiences of male sex workers, a field that was not only largely ignored (scientifically as well as publicly), but was and still is especially prone to great simplifications, as Scott/Minichiello describe in their pathbreaking book Male Sex Work and Society (2014). While I elaborate a little bit more on male sex work on page 13, I do want to stress that this thesis is predominantly concerned with the experiences of female sex workers, since they embody the vast majority of Viennese sex workers. In March 2015, 3532 people were officially registered as sex workers, of which only 75 were male (interview Langer, 2015). Of course, we don't know about the amount of male (and trans) sex workers who work without being registered.
stress[es] that prostitution does not align with human dignity or human rights.” (ibid.: 22). Moreover, there is a strong trend leading to the discursive equation of sex work with human trafficking, which was used to justify rigorous police raids and increased control and restriction of immigration (see interviews with Shivarova and Pregesbauer, both 2015). These ideological trends are influencing current discourses on sex work on a variety of scales and have very practical consequences for sex workers across Europe. I think that uncovering and deconstructing these discourses is necessary for a profound analysis and critique of the underlying power structures.
Within this thesis I am interested in the discourses around sex work in Vienna since 2009, when the 'problem' of street sex work started to appear on the media and political agenda. with a specific focus on street sex work. Studying the development of discourses that shape cultural practices – “maps of meaning” (Marchart, 2008: 169) – and where legal frameworks for street sex work are part of, can be an extremely fruitful task for gaining a better understanding of the multifaceted mechanisms of power and (re-)ordering of spaces. Laura María Agustín, an anthropologist, who researches sex work and the so called 'rescue industry' from a post-colonial perspective, writes:
“The discourse on a subject refers to a language or way of talking that develops, through use, a series of conventions and becomes institutionalised through use. The discourse defines the socially accepted, mainstream or apparently official version, the version that seems obvious or natural. At the same time, this discourse always leaves out experiences and points of view that do not fit, silencing difference and producing unease in those who do not see themselves included. To understand the concept of discourse is to remember that what we say about any given subject is always constructed, and there are only partial truths.” (Agustín, 2007: 8f)
In recent years many critical scholars emphasized the close relationship between discourses and the (re-)ordering of space, as discourses legitimize certain truths (and marginalize others), and consequently establish certain social realities: “A critical approach to discourse acknowledges that problems come into discourse and therefore into existence as reinforcements of
ideologies” (Kerkin, 2004: 185). When applied to the analysis of sex work this can be seen for example in the discursive rendering of places of sex work as immoral, dangerous or deviant spaces. Restricting street sex work to specific, marginal(ized) places becomes thus legitimized through discourses which construct sex work and sex workers as deviant, diseased and responsible for violence (Hubbard/Sanders, 2003: 79). In accordance to this, I want to analyze the changing geographies of sex work from a critical perspective, which not only acknowledges the role of discursive regulation and understands space as something that is always in flux, but understands its own claim – being critical – in its very sense: the aim of contributing “...to better understandings of the causes and consequences of social power and oppression[.]” (Chouinard, 2008: 36) I want to echo Chouinard's claim within my thesis and research the preparation and the consequences of the legal changes of 2011 in Vienna regarding the regulation of sex work with applying a critical discourse analysis.
Research question(s)
My research interest, explained above, can be channeled in the following main research question:
→ How was the dislocation of street sex work in Vienna and the general re-ordering of spaces of sex work in the course of the 'Prostitution law 2011' discursively framed and how did these discourses react on these re-orderings?
Subquestion:
→ How were sex workers 'positioned' in these processes and discursively conceptualized?
→ What were the practical and spatial consequences of the legal changes for sex workers in Vienna?
I will research these questions with applying critical discourse analysis (CDA), whereby I will refer to the approach of Belina and Dzudzek, Critical discourse analysis as societal analysis (Belina/Dzudzek, 2009: 129ff), which will be explained in detail in the methodology section.
Structure of the thesis
Here I want to summarize the composition of this thesis and explain its structure. The introduction at the beginning of the paper provided a first insight into the aim of the paper and the context of its topic, before leading to the research interest and the research questions. Before explaining the theoretical foundations of my thesis I will discuss issues of language and terminology which is especially important when engaging critically with discourses, as spoken and written words are understood as expression and medium of social power relations (Belina/Dzudzek, 2009: 130). In the next section, part 4, I want to give enough space to the societal (and academic) relevance, the ethics and also the limitations of my research. These reflections make up an integral part of the basics of feminist geographical thought, an approach which builds one of the cornerstones of my way of doing social scientific inquiry (on which I will elaborate more thoroughly in the theory and especially in the methodology section). The following part will be comprised of the theory, which forms the conceptual basis of the empirical part. After the theoretical section, in part 7, I will outline the political and legal context of the situation in Vienna regarding sex work, where I also shine a light on larger scales, namely the Austrian and the European context. It is important to situate the processes in Vienna within broader institutional and discursive changes in Europe, or better: in the EU, in the last decade. In the empirical part I will start with a short critical reflection on qualitative methodologies and its role in academic endeavors in general, which should pay tribute to the critical stance I position myself. Then I will introduce the methodologies I chose and how I practically applied them, followed by describing the analyses of the material. The results of my analysis – and actually of the whole research process – will be shown in section 10, before finishing with my Conclusions, the part which should form somewhat the point of culmination of this thesis. Here I want to summarize the research and the findings, reflect upon the research process and conclude with considering potential further steps for the future. My goal is to provide a critical, mind triggering and open-ended piece of work with clear political, emancipating
intentions. The latter builds the very core of my personal understanding of working within academia.
2. The issue of language
In this section I want to give space to different aspects of language in the context of this thesis. First I want to share some general thoughts concerning the role of language for the constitution of our social world(s), since language – meaning here written and spoken language, but also visual images – builds one of the cornerstones of CDA (Jorgensen/Phillips, 2001: 61). Next, I will address the problem that I am writing this thesis in English language, even though the case study takes place in Vienna, which means that most texts that are analyzed and included in this paper (like news paper articles or law texts, but also interview segments) are originally in German language. The implications of this will discussed in 2.2. Last, but most certainly not least, I will shed light on the importance of language use by me within this thesis, since I am on the one hand not outside of 'reality', thus how I write and speak is also constitutive of a certain social practice (thus, of a discursive practice). On the other hand, the aim of CDA and myself is to actively intervene in oppressive practices, meaning I have to be self-reflexive and aware of how my scriptielanguage potentially reproduces power relations. I will elaborate on this important issue in section 2.3.
2.1 The role of language in the constitution of 'reality'
For about two decades now the term 'discourse' had seen a quite impressive conjuncture whereas its definition is usually absent, meaning that it is used nowadays in manifold ways. Indeed, often when talked about 'discourses', what is meant is merely a public controversy or debate (see Kerchner/Schneider, 2006: 9). But even when discourse is understood as something broader, the concept usually stays vague, especially because it is used so extensively. Jorgensen and Phillips propose a general definition of 'discourse' as “a particular way of talking about and understanding the world (or an aspect of the world)” (2002:1). However, they admit that this is only helpful in a very limited way, as there are different concepts of 'discourse' as well as 'discourse
analysis', depending on the tradition and authors. Critical discourse analysis has similar difficulties, so the most important aspect of any critical analyst is to define what they understand of discourse and discourse analysis respectively (done in section 4.7 and 6.3). Since the core of discourse analysis is always the written or spoken word (or other visual signs such as maps or photos), the obvious question is if the translation of the included parts of material in another language makes sense. I came to the conclusion that it does, and will explain below why.
2.2 An English written thesis on a research field that is situated in a German speaking country
At first sight, the decision to write about a subject in English language does not raise many questions – especially when completing an English taught Master's course. But during the process of writing (and also before) I had to deal with certain challenges, that made me face the question if the research project in that form would make sense. Of course, it would have been easier to write about the discourses regarding sex work in Vienna in the language I read, perceive, make sense and talk about it. But for two reasons I still decided to continue this approach: First, as outlined in the empirical part, there is already a substantial body of theses in German language about a variety of dimensions regarding the WPG and sex work in Vienna in general – including one thesis on the spatial dimensions of the law (Gurtner, 2013). The second reason became apparent only during the analyzing and writing process and can be seen both negative and positive. Since language is, in the widest sense, an organizing principle of society – which produce social realities in historic specific discourses – (Strüver, 2009: 62), there must be consequently certain differences between the way different languages are used to make sense of the world. Since one of the difficult tasks of CDA is to uncover and identify hegemonic discourses, thus trying to step outside those discourses (which, of course, is only possible to a certain extent), I found a particular advantage in writing in another language about my research field and my findings. As Richardson notes, writing is both part of the research and the analysis: “Although we usually think about writing as a mode of 'telling' about the social
world, writing is not just a mopping-up activity at the end of a research project. Writing is also a way of 'knowing' – a method of discovery and analysis. By writing in different ways, we discover new aspects of our topic and our relationship to it. Form and content are inseparable.” (Richardson, 1994: 516, quoted from Holloway/Hubbard, 2001: 248) Hence, with writing in another language, a language that is neither my mother tongue nor the language of the research field – and consequently the discourses that are to be examined – I found the advantage of acquiring a certain distance to my research material. Having written this thesis in German would have been easier, but also harder regarding the critical reflection of my “...own position in the discourse, and how that position helps to constitute particular understandings of the issues under analysis.” (Berg, 2009: 219)
Still, there are of course some practical constraints, where I am not yet clear of the consequences regarding tangibility or meaningfulness. On a more practical note, as I will translate the included quotes of my interview participants, there is a certain danger that assertions loose their meaning or that there are words which are 'untranslatable', especially when people speak with a Viennese dialect. Another issue is that, with translating the transcriptions, I manipulate the text, even if I am not aware of it. Also it is sometimes hard to translate legal texts or names of official institutions or groups, as they emerged within a specific context and can appear strange or inappropriate. For the latter there is a good possibility that it does not only appear, but is indeed inappropriate, no matter if in German or English. This is precisely the case with news paper articles, where sensational language is widely used. For example, many Austrian tabloids use the German term “Dirne” when they write about sex workers which appears very condescending and patronizing, as it is not only very outdated but also an old word for 'young girl'. The proper English translation is probably wanton, trull, or strumpet. Concluding, I have to be very careful in the translations and, whenever there is the chance of misunderstandings, also include the German word or text passage. As for the interview quotes, I will include an appendix with all the quotes in their original language.
2.3 How I use language in this thesis and why
An important issue is the language I personally use within project – not only within the written thesis but also in the interviews. Because language produces and reproduces power relations, it is necessary for me to be very aware of and address the language and terms I use. As I consider myself an advocate for sex workers rights, I decided not to use terms like 'prostitute', 'whore' or similar words. With talking about 'sex workers', there is an emphasis on the work aspect and it is avoided to use terms which attribute a specific, permanent identity to sex workers (like 'prostitute'). In the manual 'Empowerment through rights awareness', created by the 'Indoors' project2, they state: “The term "sex worker" is used in preference to "prostitute," as it is intended to be non-judgemental, focusing on the conditions under which sexual services are sold.” (Hörtner, 2015: 91) And, also very important: “Sex work is consensual sex between adults.” (ibid., my emphasis) This statement seems trivial but can not be underestimated, as it implies that sex work has to be performed consensual, otherwise it is not sex work: “Sex work is by definition consensual sex. Non consensual sex is not sex work; it is sexual violence or slavery.” (The Sex Workers in Europe Manifesto, 2005: 1) The way I use the term 'sex work' in this thesis corresponds exactly to this understanding: sex work as a self-chosen form of (short or long term) labour, conceptualizing sex workers as people who have agency and decide to practice sex work for reasons that don't differ inherently from reasons to practice other forms of labour. Hence, the term 'sex worker' emphasizes the active subject and rejects victimizing and passivating concepts of (forced) 'prostitution', which experienced a new wave of negative connotation in association with the 'trafficking' discourse (Agustín, 2007: 5ff). The latter will be discussed in more detail in the theory section as well as in section 5, which outlines the political and legal situation in Vienna and Austria.
I will take over the term 'prostitute' when I quote someone who used it. As stated in the previous section, it is sometimes impossible to avoid certain terminologies, for example when analyzing and referring to legal texts – the
most obvious examples are the actual names of the laws, such as the 'Wiener Prostitutionsgesetz' (WPG), translated 'Viennese prostitution law'. On the other hand, I also partially agree with some activists/writers who resist only using the term 'sex work' or 'sex worker', since displacing the term 'prostitute' can obscure the stigmatization that sex workers are exposed to. Moreover, it could linguistically disguise the fact that workers' rights are usually absent (see Bauer, 2014: 6; Amesberger, 2014: 16). Faika El-Nagahsi for instance uses in her thesis about feminist positions towards sex work in Austria the self created term 'Prostitution*Sexarbeit' (English translation: 'Prostitution*Sex work). To use an asterisk behind terms like women, men or trans ('women*', 'men*', 'trans*') was developed by the trans* community as a symbol that opens up space – literally through the '*' - for thinking beyond hetero-normative concepts of binary gender models, and thus include in the respective written word everyone who considers themselves as for example a woman* (AG Feministisch Sprachhandeln der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2014: 17ff). Also, it disrupts the reading flow consciously, which should serve as thought-provoking impulses to reflect the own discriminatory language. El-Nagashi tried to symbolize the area of conflict around sex work in Austria, also across feminist groups, with the term 'Prostitution*Sexarbeit', an effort I find positively interesting but will not overtake in my thesis.
The English term 'sex work' was created in the 1970s as an umbrella term which should unify all people who work in the sex industry, including for example strip dancers, people who provide sexual services via telephone or web cam, but also porn actors/actresses (see Grant, 2008: 61; Kempadoo, 1998: 4f). The fact that my research focuses on a comparatively small part of the just outlined sex industry could be seen as another reason to avoid the term 'sex worker', but for the reflections outlined above, I ultimately decided for this specific terminology. In the interviews most participants used the word 'Sexarbeiterin', the German word for sex worker, which reflects the gendered reality of sex work in Vienna – 99% of registered sex workers are female. It is thus important to keep in mind that when I write about 'sex workers' I usually
mean female sex workers3. I will note when I mean male sex workers or both male and female sex workers.
3. Relevance / Ethics / Limitations
3.1 Relevance
The research has a clear academic and societal relevance. It is relevant in human geographical terms as it is interested in the emergence of socio-spatial changes and the power relations that structure these processes. More precisely, this research should contribute to a critical scholarship that seeks to understand the production of urban space as a process which is deeply embedded in broader societal structures, thus influenced and influencing at the same time. The theoretical framework of the production of space emphasizes the contradictory and alterable role of space, how different spaces are constantly produced – but also how these spaces are contested. In connection to that I want to lie a special focus on the role of discourses for changing geographies. There lies a great potential for doing discourse analysis in human geography, as the constitution of specific spaces is tightly connected with the hegemonic enforcement of specific social realities (Glasze/Mattissek, 2009: 12f). Hence, discourse analysis can reveal the entanglement of spatialities and the constitution of the social field (ibid.: 15). The case study of changing sex work regimes in Vienna can reveal how discourses work and what impact these discourses have on a practical, everyday basis for sex workers. In the case of street sex work lies a particular relevance regarding labour geography as its 3 Which can also be problematic, as people in general probably think of women when they hear the word 'sex
worker'. Thus, it is denied that male sex workers are also a part of the sex industry. „Indeed, the term „prostitute“ has remained closely identified with female behavior, and sex as a commodity for exchange is typically constructed as a heterosexual event in which the male client is invisible.(...) Nevertheless, male sex work has been present consistently in most societies; in fact, the numbers of MSWs at particular historical junctures has been relatively high.“ (Minichiello/Scott, 2014: 1) Moreover, male sex work is practiced around the globe and is not restricted to particular geographic or sociopolitical contexts. Of course, how it is conceptualized and regulated, but also practiced as a commercial business differs between countries and cultures (ibid.: 325).
Academic research on male sex work has only recently shown a paradigm shift to analyses that are more sophisticated and understand sex work as work, and do not conceptualize male sex workers as either carriers of deseases or „psychopathological agents“ (Minichiello/Scott/Callander, 2013: 263). Overall, „[r]esearch has shifted from rather simplistic accounts of heterosexual sex workers servicing homosexual clients to more sophistictated accounts of the male sex industry in which both sex workers and clients are acknowledged as having complex and variable sexual histories.“ (ibid.) A current 'trend' in researching male sex work was also apparent for me personally when participating at the COST conference, where there was a whole panel session devoted to male sex work, but also other presentations which dealt with different dimensions of the subject (COST, April 16th-18th 2015)
regulation has a direct impact on the spatial distribution of sex work in the public sphere and thus on the working sites (and conditions) of the women involved. However, following the main claim made by contemporary labour geography, this process is not one-way. Herod argues “...both that geography plays a role in structuring workers' lives, and that workers and their organizations may play important roles in shaping landscapes as part of their social self-reproduction.” (Herod, 2001: 5) The point is therefore to find the interplay between workers and capital (and the state) in producing spatialities. As a proper discussion of the concept of work is important to analyze the production of space through this interplay, I will discuss its specific meaning within sex work in the theory section more thoroughly. In connection to other case studies which researched street sex work, the research should uncover larger underlying structures and thus allow to generate wider theoretical notions on gender, power and the production of space. As I am working from a feminist standpoint, it is important to state that I have a clear aim with this research: to uncover unequal power relations and give a certain space to people whose experiences and opinions are barely included in public debates and policy making processes, even though they are the ones who are most affected by these decisions: sex workers. I want to contribute influencing present discourses and thus strengthen the role of sex workers. The fact that I did not include sex workers in this research directly will be discussed thoroughly in the empirical section. The research should also function as a critical summary of the situation of street sex work in Vienna and to shine a light on the practical consequences of the new law and the changing working conditions of sex workers. The increasing precarization of sex work and lack of institutional and practical acknowledgment of sex work as work limit the possibilities and the potential of self-organizing significantly. One of my foci in this research is the role of sex workers' organizations, which serve – assumable – as the most important actors for influencing discourses in favor of sex workers. However, in terms of worker agency, the focus should lie on the processes that are needed to strengthen the legal and social status of sex workers. I hope that I can contribute with my research to strengthen this focus – especially in uncovering the power structures that restrict and determine
these processes. Finally, this research has the potential to contribute to debates about much wider notions regarding urban renewal processes, gentrification and relating to that, the question of who has the right to the city – and for whom it is denied. Lastly it should also serve as an exemplifying case study of the actual consequences of such legal changes.
3.2 Ethical aspects
I define the ethical aspects of my research along power relations between the different actors involved in the research process; the researcher (me) and the 'researched' (sex workers). I truly believe that it is impossible to generate a somewhat equal or 'power-free' space. The only possibility is therefore to be aware of the hierarchies at stake and work in a highly reflective way. Connected to that is the question of representation and agency. Even if I position myself in favor of sex workers and promote their rights, my position is still ambivalent. I am a privileged White Western European women who never worked in the sex industry. I can thus never claim to speak for sex workers, the only position I can take is that of an informed outsider who considers herself to be an ally to sex workers4. It is very important to be aware of my own subjectivity and to be sensitive to potential Othering and Fetishizing from my side towards the people that are at the very core of my research. Moreover, I want to provide as much transparency to my research participants as possible, to give the possibility (at every point) to cancel the participation or the usage of the interview material and to anonymize names and places when claimed. More generally I have to consider very carefully if and how my research and thesis could be harmful to sex workers.
3.3 Limitations
“All methods — whether explicit or not — have limitations. The advantage of explicitness is that those limitations can be understood and, if possible, addressed. In addition, the methods can be taught and shared. This process allows research results to be compared across separate researchers and research projects studies to be replicated, and scholars to learn.” 4 A good source of how to be an ally is the homepage Sex Work Activists, Allies, and You: http://www.swaay.org/
(Michael, Robert S., 2002: 2)
Of course, there were limitations to my research and I will try to mention some of them. One of the main limitations has been be the time factor, which means that I only had a few months for the whole research process. As my case study is placed in Vienna, the part of doing research there was limited to five weeks, due to the structure of the Master's program in Amsterdam. This short time in Vienna didn't give me the possibility of embracing an iterative way of researching. I was very dependent on external factors, like the accessibility of people for interviews – this is of course always the case, but with these strong time limitations this was even more significant. From other theses which engaged with the subject of sex work in Vienna, I could get an idea of the constraints and difficulties of researching the field, and especially the field of outdoor-based sex work (Böhm, 2010; Cizek, 2012; Kofler, 2014). Ultimately I decided against the attempt of including sex workers in this research project, which has clear reasons (see section 6.2), still I would evaluate that this as a limitation.
There is a strong possibility that this thesis won't find its way to changing policies or to empower sex workers, which reveals a limitation that didn't concern the research process but the potential influence of the thesis. My aim is to inform counter-hegemonic discourses and thus challenge power relations – a theoretical aspiration which could see practical limitations. However, I want to at least trigger some discussions within my personal environment and motivate people to question contemporary ideological discourses on sex work.
4.Theory
Discussing the theoretical foundations of this research is pivotal, since they heavily inform my epistemological and ontological comprehension. First I will elaborate on feminist labour geographies and how they influence understandings of sex work and other informal and/or reproductive labour.
Then I will discuss the issue of the regulation of female sexuality which is very much connected to legal approaches towards sex work. Section 4.3 engages with the question if sex work is a work like any other and touches on issues like voluntariness. The next part deals with how sex workers are discursively constructed to symbolize or embody different aspects like urban degradation or female deviance. Following I touch on the subject of identity and subjectivities – also important when researching sex worker agency and discourses. Section 4.6 elaborates on the different approaches in legally regulating sex work, which represent also different stances towards sex work in general. The last three sections deal with theoretical questions of space and place, the role of discourses for sex work and why and how to engage with critical discourse analysis. When elaborating on the theoretical dimensions of the phenomenon of sex work, one issue is particularly striking, that is its multi-scalar character. The discourses, laws and other factors (economic, institutional,...) that impact the every day lives of sex workers work on a variety of scales that entail the global level as well as the body.
4.1 Feminist labour geographies & sex work
Discussing notions of work is crucial when writing about labour geographies from a feminist standpoint. Authors like Doreen Massey and Linda McDowell had a great impact on the development of a more thorough understanding of the geographies of labour as they emphasize the engendered nature of contemporary work relations. McDowell identifies three universal key patterns of women's work, that is horizontal segregation (meaning that women are pushed into distinct sectors like the service or the reproductive sector), vertical segregation (which means that women are usually placed at the bottom of the professional hierarchy) and third, that women as a group earn profoundly less than men as a group (McDowell, 1999: 126). Pivotal to understanding these patterns of inequality is to deconstruct binary notions of work and its historical and ideological origins (England/Lawson, 2005: 78). As already mentioned earlier, this entails the conceptualization of work as waged work (and consequently devaluing reproductive work as unpaid work) and the respective gender associations with those spheres. As there is a huge lack of
acknowledgement of the global female workforce, the main goal of feminist geographies is to balance this unequal theorization: “Feminist expansions of 'work' opened up analysis of diverse sites of work, beyond formal workplaces, to include homework and other unregulated sites[.]” (ibid.) In this context, it is especially necessary to theorize sex work, since it is not only largely marginalized, but also because sex workers are discursively reduced to their occupation. Thus 'sex work' not only becomes part of their identity (which leads to stigmatization), but moreover its work character is usually denied (see Caixeta/Hamen/Mineva, 2012: 161). Sex work in Western European countries needs to be seen as part of the service sector continuum which also includes care work and other reproductive labour done by migrant women from outside the EU as well as from the newer EU members in Eastern Europe (ibid.: 165). These work relations are most often shaped by being underpaid, insecure and made invisible. The crucial point though is to identify these current labour relations as a consequence of global unequal economic relations, resulting in, above others, transnational migration and a feminization of work (Caixeta, 2014: 112f). The so called “care crisis” in the global North brought about a demand for cheap migrant labour in the service sector
From the viewpoint of feminist geographies street sex work is particularly interesting with its specific embodied nature as it contests normative concepts of gender, women's work and female sexuality in relation to public space. “Some bodies disrupt accepted notions of “appropriate” embodied employment and are constructed as “out of place' in their workplace.” (England/Lawson, 2005: 83) Street sex work is thus inherently subversive and entails consequently a distinct potential for acts of resistance. However, sex workers' agency is usually largely restricted as high degrees of precarity and stigmatization (Pregesbauer, interview 2015) constrain the possibilities of collective organizing5. For this research – and in relation to the concept of the production of space, introduced below – one focus will be the potential and the constraints of sex workers' agency in the case of Vienna.
5 Despite these constrains there is a large number of sex worker collectives unions, self-run organizations and networks (in the global North as well as in the global South – a fact that is often dismissed) (see Bauer, 2014: 40ff)
4.2 The regulation of female sexuality
“Whores are literally and figuratively symbolic of what is most morally repugnant in womanhood: her ability to negotiate her own sexuality.” (Grant, 2008: 64)
The question of how and why sexuality is regulated is essential to understand the politics which are exercised on sex workers, especially outdoor-based sex workers. The intensive regulation of street sex work is related to the deeply gendered nature of public space, which is a consequence (and in turn a determining factor) of the public/private dichotomy (Hubbard, 2005: 322). This dichotomy has “...its ideological, material, and historical roots in the separation of home and work[,]” a process which not only constructed the domestic site as an inherently feminine space (and the public as an inherently masculine), but also devalued the reproductive work done by women (England/Lawson, 2005: 78). The separation of the public and the private and the according associations with the male and female gender in 'Western' cities is an important reason for the persistence of the binary gender order, making analysis of public spaces and the regulation of female sexuality and women's work therein highly important. In the case of sex work, its discursive and legal regulation is an essential means of establishing far-reaching notions about what is socially and morally 'normal' – and what is not (Hubbard/Sanders, 2003: 75). As already mentioned, the legal (and discursive) regulation of street sex work is one of the most determining dimensions for the working conditions and the status of the business. The emphasis on the 'sexual' part of sex work and its specific rendering is thus central to their legal approaches – as their lack of including labour rights directly influence the practical working conditions of sex workers. “Legal regimes, then, play an important role in suppressing sex workers' attempts to articulate their practices as a form of work and promote its interpretation as fundamentally a sexual act.” (Zatz, 1997: 284) Summarizing, the regulation of (female) sexuality has to be seen always as discursive and institutional and it is precisely the intertwining of these two dimensions that make its analysis and change so difficult, yet important.
4.3 Sex work – a work like any other?
“By sexualizing and feminizing the public realm, the prostitute was an ‘inconvenient figure’ who demonstrated to male authority that its control of the city was not as complete as it would have liked others to have believed; cut loose from the bounds of monogamy, productive labour and religious asceticism, she escaped from the bounds of moralized space.” (Hubbard, 20: 138)
It is important to state that, despite its ambivalent character, sex work is practiced around the globe – in a variety of forms and under diverging socio-legal circumstances. The sex industry (which includes pornography, indoor- and outdoor-based sex work, escort, striptease, erotic massages, phone sex, chats and much more) is a global multi-billion dollar economy, which works on formal and informal levels, whereby these levels are often intertwined (see Cizek, 2012: 57ff; Böhm, 2010: 7). Acknowledging this should underline the statement that sex work is not a peripheral matter but deeply embedded in most societies and, regardless of its legal situation, continuously practiced – but with high differences of the working conditions in terms of safety, autonomy and agency. The second point I want to include here is the question of forced/voluntary sex work. Many scholars argue that this dichotomy is for two reasons problematic. First, it implies that most wage labour apart from sex work is voluntary, a notion that can be relativized with acknowledging that most people today are integrated in the capitalist system and thus forced to sell their labour power in order to survive (Böhm, 2010: 14f; Heinrich, 2005). The dual construction of forced/voluntary work becomes even more porous when acknowledging the wide range of precarious working lives today. Second, the notion of forced sex work is very much connected to discourses on human trafficking – discourses which are reproduced by governmental and non-governmental institutions to legitimize criminalizing legal frameworks for sex work (Kempadoo, 2005: viiff)
For example, Grant describes in her case study of sex work regulation in a Canadian city, how sex workers are constructed as trafficked victims by the government to gain public empathy and support for strict regulation and
control (Grant, 2008: 68f). The crux of this approach is that it not only ignores all other marginalizing components (such as structural inequality, sexism or racism) but also its own inherent negative effect, that is increased insecure working conditions due to criminalization. Also, these discourses construct binary identities of sex workers: either sex workers are passive victims of trafficking and must be saved (a construction which is mostly applied to migrant sex workers) or they work voluntarily, thus they must be 'sinners' (Böhm, 2010: 15f; Grant, 2008: 64f). Furthermore, the criminalization of sex work or the clients of sex workers does not prevent trafficking or violence against sex workers, but forces sex workers to work under more precarious situations. As stated in the analysis, many abolitionists of the global North don't have the goal of actually preventing human trafficking, but rather preventing uncontrolled immigration (Kempadoo, 2005: xivff).
Feminists stances towards sex work can be largely divided in two main perspectives, one that seeks to abolish sex work altogether as it allegedly embodies patriarchal oppression and exploitation, thus it can never be autonomous (dieStandard.at, August 22nd 2014). This radical standpoint is embodied by the 'Swedish model', meaning the ban of sex work in Sweden in 1999, and most prominently advocated by the German feminist Alice Schwarzer, who is criticized by many feminists for ultimately denying sex workers their agency. In an interview she states for example: “People who trade nowadays with ivory or buy it, naturally get punished – to protect the elephants. Why shouldn't we protect women [sex workers, N.B.] at least as well as elephants?”. In the same interview she made the following claim about sex workers: “They are mostly mentally broken, their sexuality is ruined, and so is their trust in men. Very often they were abused as a child – meaning that the first step into prostitution was not a big one.” (Kurier, November 17th 2013) The other perspective is one that emerged from the 'Sex Workers Rights Movement'6 and – in contrast to the previous – is mostly informed by sex 6 The 'Sex Workers Rights movement' usually means the movements and organizations that constituted in the 1970ies in Europe and Northern America and which, in 1985, led to the formation of an international organization for sex workers' rights, the International Committee for Prostitutes' Rights (ICPR) (Kempadoo, 1998: 4ff). Subsequently there were two international meetings in Amsterdam and Brussels organized, which in turn gave rise to the 'Charta of Prostitutes Rights'. There was substantial criticism from sex workers and organizations from the global South, uncovering the imperialistic and racist practices by the organizations of the global North (Kofler, 2014: 72f). Thus, it is important to
workers' experiences, knowledges and demands. This stance promotes and fights for the legal recognition of sex work as a normal profession with equal rights (ibid.). I position myself firmly within the second stance.
4.4 Sex workers as symbols for deviance and degradation
“The way prostitution is conceptualized in a given society reveals key cultural ideals and assumptions about gender and sexuality.” (Grant, 2008: 61)
There is a large number of social scientific literature around sex work and its regulation7, identifying the multidimensional character of sex work control which is informed with ideas and norms about work and even more about gender, culture and sexuality (Grant, 2011:62). Sex work regimes thus reveal important imaginations of the role of women in society, as sex workers are largely depicted as being symbolic for what is morally objectionable (Hubbard/Sanders, 2003: 75). It is argued that the framing of sex workers as deviant and abnormal is a necessary part of a broader process of normalizing specific identities – identities which allegedly form the counterpart of sex workers' identities and which entail heterosexuality, monogamy and reproductivity. Grant for example states “...that the symbolic of prostitution is cultural and political necessity deployed by nation-states to discipline women, regulate their bodies, and ensure they uphold reproductive normativity” (Grant, 2008: 62). However, it is important to analyze sex work and its regulatory practices as embedded in complex and contextual power relations, which cannot be reduced solely to ideas about gender and sexuality (Zatz, 1997: 279). The regulation of sex work comprises wider implications that not only entail normative practices but which have to be seen as part of specific labor state that the sex workers rights movement is by no means a homogenous movement or representative of the huge variety of sex workers experiences around the globe. Especially from an intersectional perspective it should be clear that this can in general never be the case with a movement which claims to be global. Nevertheless there is an important common claim, that is gaining public acknowledgement of sex work as self-chosen work and thus, strenghtening the rights of sex workers.
7 It is important to state that the overall share of research on sex work within social sciences is still marginal (Gurtner, 2013: 6).
market and migration policies against the backdrop of uneven development and global relationships of exploitation (Caixeta/Hamen/Mineva, 2012: 164f; Amesberger, 2014: 114f). Moreover, sex work regimes are also connected to larger economic structures, as much of indoor sex work plays an important role for state income in terms of licensing fees and taxes (see for example Grant, 2008: 69) – in contrast to street sex work, which is often highly contested, due to processes like urban renewal and gentrification (Künkel, 2011: 142; Wright, 2004: 370). In this regard street sex work is conceptualized as a criterion for economic degradation and declining 'living quality' in the neighbourhood. Wright for example argues in her paper about street sex work in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, that the government discursively constructed the dislocation of street sex work as a process of modernization and economic progress (Wright, 2004). Hubbard, Hubbard/Sanders, Kerkin and Künkel come to similar conclusions within their research, where thy show how degradation, criminality and sex work are discursively conceptualized as connected and reciprocal (Hubbard/Sanders, 2003; Hubbard, 2004; Kerkin, 2004; Künkel, 2011).
4.5 Identity – subjectivities
Identity is not only a key concept in discursive research and Foucauldian approaches but also and especially central to feminist scholarship and cultural and gender studies. Within cultural studies for example, the question of the discursive logic of the construction of social identity (and difference) is the key field for (re)producing power dynamics and hierarchies (in and through culture) (Marchart, 2008: 33 & 169f). Feminist researchers emphasize the importance of the construction of binary sex and gender models as “...a key organizing principle and axis of social power, as well as a crucial part of the constitution of subjectivity, of an individual's sense of their self-identity as a sexed and gendered person.” (McDowell, 1999: 8) Theorizing the subject is an important task in social scientific work as ideas about subjectivity are profoundly connected to notions of agency and autonomy. The notion of subjectivity, or subjectivities, is suggested by feminist geographers to emphasize that identities are not fixed and that they don't have some essential qualities attached to them (female=a, male=b, etc.) (Berg, 2009: 215). Rather they
contain contradictory elements and are always-in-the-making. Processes of identity building are inherently connected to space as they are recursively (re)created. Feminist geographers are specifically focusing on these processes and how power and knowledge are thereby reproduced (England/Lawson, 2005: 83).
4.6 Legal approaches in the regulation of sex work
As mentioned above, sex work regulation is multidimensional and its legal components play a specific – but barely the only – role. Still, they constitute (discursive) frameworks which influence the everyday lives, the autonomy and the safety of sex workers. People who are active in the sex workers rights movement (which are to a large number comprised of sex workers themselves) emphasize that it is not the inherent character of sex work itself but its criminalization which give way to their marginalization, oppression and exploitation (Zatz, 1997: 289; Hörtner, 2015: 23f). Criminalization can be direct or indirect (for example by criminalizing other activities surrounding sex work) and entail different legal measures which can be played out on different political-administrational levels (Hörtner, 2015: 89). More broadly, there are four different regimes regarding the control of sex work: prohibitionism (which renders all related activities as criminal offenses), abolitionism (which wants to criminalize third parties, but not sex workers), legalization (seeking to regulate sex work through civil and labour laws), and decriminalization (seeking to remove all criminalizing laws regarding sex work and to frame sex work as a normal profession, thus applying labour laws) (Grant, 2008: 62; Hörtner, 2005: 89ff). It is important to understand legal regimes as constitutive of sex workers' statuses, their identities, and consequently their agency, as most legal frameworks isolate sex work from its work character and emphasize merely its sexual aspect (Zatz, 1997: 284). For example, in the WPG it is stated: “Initiation of prostitution is present, when someone indicates through their behavior that they want to carry out prostitution.8” (own emphasis) The ongoing stigmatization of sex workers must be seen in relation to the fact that sex work is overall not acknowledged as work, neither institutionally nor in society.
4.7 The production of space – a tricky, yet fruitful concept
“Relating Lefebvre’s ideas to spaces of prostitution, we contend that the geography of sex work is the outcome of an unfolding relationship between different types of space — the ordered spaces of the capitalist state on the one hand, and the ‘lived’ spaces of prostitutes on the other.” (Hubbard/Sanders, 2003: 75)
The concept of the production of space can be traced back to the French Marxist Henri Lefebrve, who laid in the 1960s the theoretical foundations for critical urban studies (research). The so-called 'urban crisis', which emerged in the course of fordist urban restructuring in the Western cities9, triggered not only riots and urban protest movements but also a radical re-orientation within academia regarding urban and spatial research. Lefebvre laid the foundations with his encompassing and multifaceted analysis of urban phenomena, everyday life and space on a theoretical level (Wiegand, 2013: 13f). His most important and far-reaching notion – which stood in radical contrast to the paradigms on space at the time – is, that space cannot be understood as something (merely) physical, but more importantly, something social, more precisely: something that is socially produced (Schmid, 2011: 35; Hubbard/Sanders, 2008: 79f). The production of space implies not only that every society10 produces its own space (Lefebvre, 2006: 330f), but also that space is always in motion and contested. Moreover Lefebvre conceptualized three dimensions for analyzing space and spatial phenomena: the perceived (the sensually perceived urban practice and material interaction), the conceptualized (the discursively constructed space, which is at the same time the dominant social space), and the experienced, lived (the infusion of spaces with symbolic content through the urban experience) (Schmid, 2011: 35ff; McCann, 2007: 244f). According to these three dimensions he distinguishes three forms of space: spatial practices, representations of space and spaces of 9 Which included the dislocation of parts of the urban population from the city centers, the construction of anonymous large scale apartment blocks in the urban periphery and the urban restructuring in favor of motorized individual transport (Gebhardt/Holm, 2011: 7f).
representation (Hubbard/Sanders, 2003: 80). Both of these triades work dialectically in producing space(s). I define as the most important aspect of Lefebvre's theory of the production of space the notion of resistance and agency. Like discourse, space is never only informed by hegemonic ideologies, it is never static, there are always contradictions in the representations of space which give potential for challenging practices that are informed by unequal power relations. Moreover, Lefebvre emphasizes the potential of everyday life to start transformations. The latter is specifically interesting for changing geographies of street sex work.
4.8 The role of discourses for geographies of sex work
The significance of discourses for spatial analysis emerges from the acknowledgment that space and spatial structures are not 'given' and fixed, but rather socially produced and thus always in flux. In turn a focus on spatial processes (or researching with a spatial perspective) recognizes that space is both a constitutive and constituting factor. Within the production of space, discursive practices are specifically important when they contribute to the reproduction of societal power relations (Belina/Dzudzek, 2009: 143). Kerkin for example researched the spatial re-ordering of street sex work in an Australian town with applying a critical discourse analysis. She notes that “...[a] critical approach to discourse helps shed light on social problems, including their causes and spatial manifestation.” (Kerkin, 2004: 186) According to Henri Lefebvre, space(s) are produced through a process of ordered spatial norms of the state and their contesting within people's everyday lives (Hubbard/Sanders, 2003:75). The theory of the production of space is consequently an important moment in critically researching society and its power formations as it – like discourse analysis – questions pre-given and fixed structures and identities. Hence, analyzing the reciprocal constitution of space and the social field can be a productive and fruitful task (Glasze/Mattissek, 2009: 214f). When analyzing discourses around sex work, specifically around street sex work, there is a particular advantage of such an approach that takes both the material and the discursive social practices into account.
Linked to critical concepts of space are notions on place, which acknowledge the powerful relationship of place and ideology (Cresswell, 1996: 13ff). By rendering people and their behavior as 'out of place', specific places are ascribed with specific meanings that do not align with behavior that is conceptualized 'bad' and 'inappropriate'. Sex workers are particularly often conceptualized as being out of place, as we will see in the empirical part. Cresswell's notion that places get meanings and values and thus serve as important normative geographies, is in that context highly helpful (ibid.). Another reason why discourses are so important for the production and reproduction of spaces of street sex work is that these spaces are so often contested and precarious. Thus, due to the lack of recognition of sex work, discourses on street sex work often reveal power relations, that are specifically unequal – and also highly contradictory. “Just as it is the case that space and place are used to structure a normative world, they are also used (intentionally or otherwise) to question that normative world.” (ibid.: 9) Hence, with looking critically into discourses that govern spatial practices by conceptualizing them as 'inappropriate' or 'deviant', underlying ideologies become more apparent.
4.9 Discourses and how to critically analyze them
“[T]he discursive constitution of society does not emanate from a free play of ideas in peoples head but from a social practice which is firmly rooted in and oriented to real, material social structures.” (Fairclough, 1992: 66, quoted in Belina/Dzudzek, 2009: 133)
The term 'discourse' is generally used in two ways: in a linguistic (which focus on examples of spoken or written language) and in a more broad way, which is often used in (critical) social sciences (Berg, 2009: 215f). I refer in my thesis to the latter as this is the approach I find the most fruitful for critical analysis of society, since its claim is one which decidedly focuses on power relations. Furthermore, I agree with Belina/Dzudzek that the social world can not be reduced to mere text, neither theoretically – society is not identical with language –, nor methodologically – analysis of language is no privileged access to the social field (2009: 130f). In this sense, discourses mean the way
knowledge and social practice is structured by frameworks that are taken-for-granted and often hidden (ibid.). Discourses are not only constituted by but also constitutive of social values and structures, thus they “...can be seen more as a set of unspoken rules, which govern, control, and produce knowledge in a culture.” (Berg, 2009: 216) For critically analyzing society and power relations, discourses represent a linguistic form of the contradictions and power differences which constitute societal relations (Belina/Dzudzek, 2009: 131). Discursive regulation means consequently the ways in which specific knowledges, or certain 'truths' are constructed and reproduced, how these 'truths' manifest through practices and how these practices are internalized and reproduced by 'everybody' in that sense. For Foucault – whose theories had a major influence on the development of discourse analysis – this is one of the crucial points: that governing implies not only leading but also eventually self-leading of the governed (ibid.: 141). Finally it is important to state here that there are always a number of – contradictory – discourses present at a specific time in a specific society, but usually there is one that is hegemonic and thus the most influent (Berg, 2009: 215).
In the conceptual model above I made an attempt to visualize the processes of regulation, discourses, identity formation and the production of space. The scheme can be divided roughly in two parts – on the left side there is 'the state' and its institutions and on the right there are sex workers, organizations who work for sex workers, but also the workers' identities and their agency. The conceptual triad for the production of space, suggested by Lefebvre, is positioned here according to this division: on the left side the representations of space (the knowledges and discourses that order space), and on the right side the spatial practices (the everyday spatial routines) and spaces of representation (the urban experience which create symbolic meanings towards specific spaces) (Hubbard/Sanders, 2003: 80). It is important to understand this model in motion and never static. The processes that constitute street sex work and its geographies are informed by both the discursive and legal regulations by the state but also by the potential agency and the everyday practices of the sex workers (who in turn inform discourses that influence the public opinion and the state's regulations). I have to state that this model is very normative and idealized, and, after finishing the research and analysis, it cannot be compared to the actual workings of discourses in the context of Vienna. Especially the big red arrow that apparently influences the (public) discourse is in the case of Vienna much smaller – almost invisible.
5. Political and legal context for sex work in Vienna
“Although in Austria sex work is legal and no longer called immoral, stigmatisation, discrimination and double morality still characterise the way in which it is dealt with in society and by politics. Sex work is still a taboo and many of its components are criminalised while at the same time reality proves that there is a high demand for sexual services.” (Sex Workers Forum, Human Rights Violation against Sex Workers in Austria: 2015)
Before introducing the empirical part of my research project and elaborating on the methodologies – and subsequently on the analytical steps – it is essential to
