Action research with street-based sex workers and an outreach team: A co-authored case study

Abstract

Despite the recent advances in participatory research with sex workers, our knowledge regarding how to process and articulate the various steps of participatory action research remains rather limited. This article focuses on a participatory action research case study with street-based female sex workers and an outreach team. This case study was developed in Coimbra, Portugal and lasted for three years, beginning at the end of 2012. This paper has the following three primary purposes: (1) to fill this research gap by describing all the steps of a participatory action research project; (2) to examine the process and results; and (3) to offer a model of research and social practice that involves sex workers. We identified a mutual understanding regarding the priority concerns, but there is little cohesion among sex workers. We concluded that the participatory action research activities may have provided a sense of control and awareness, but the transformation of subjectivity to collective action is still required.

Peer researchers in post-professional healthcare: A glimpse at motivations and partial objectivity as opportunities for action researchers

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Male Sex Workers Selling Physical Sex during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Portugal: Motives, Safer Sex Practices, and Social Vulnerabilities

“…One of the most insidious consequences of such stigma is its ability to curtail the capacity of sex workers to fight for basic human rights, especially in a country like Portugal where the political void makes sex workers face a range of barriers when accessing health care services, justice services, and victim and protection services, perpetuating experiences of discrimination and their exclusion from employment legislation. In addition, following a participatory paradigm [41], this study highlights the need to involve male sex workers in the design, implementation and evaluation of interventions that concern them, thus allowing for a sense of control so much need in times of vulnerability such as those inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Co-designing a digital health tool to deliver occupational health and safety strategies for sex workers

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