Participatory Change in a Campaign Led by Sex Workers: Connecting Resistance to Action-Oriented Agency

Abstract

Studies predict that the number of HIV infections among commercial sex workers (CSWers) in India may rise to 3.93 million. Efforts have been made to stem the tide. But most campaigns have been designed to ensure condom compliance among CSWers by spreading awareness and increasing availability. Absent from the discursive space of such campaigns are the agency of CSWers and their ability to resist dominant social structures. The authors respond to this lacuna in health communication by foregrounding voices of CSWers participating in two HIV/AIDS interventions in India. Based on the culture-centered approach to health communication and subaltern studies theory, it examines data from two sites to analyze how communicative narratives of agency and resistance are enacted in the marginalized lives of sex workers.

An Institutional Field of People Living with HIV/AIDS Organizations in Tanzania: Agency, Culture, Dialogue, and Structure

“…For RQ3, I searched for "X as PLWHA organization/member agency. " Here, I drew guidance from CCA research emphasizing agency (e.g., Basu and Dutta, 2008). I posed questions such as "How are PLWHA organizations/members interacting with culture and structure?"…”

Challenging Humanitarian Images the Case of Anti-Trafficking

“…But we have not gained out of any of these.... It is the people who have interviewed us, photographed or filmed us who have gained" [9].…”

“…Sex workers" access to legal, social and health resources suffer through the use of aggressive "raid" and "rescue" tactics staged by NGOs in collaboration with local law enforcement agencies [11]. The freedom to come together, communicate, organize, and advocate for rights is central to sex workers" ability to fight stigma, remain healthy, and improve their selfconfidence [9]. Furthermore, several South and Southeast Asian sex workers" rights unions and organizations were involved in drafting the 2012 report, indicating an attempt to remedy the lack of sex workers" perspectives in the anti-trafficking debate.…”

“…The increased attention on regulation of borders coincides with a mandate that polices women"s sexuality along with their freedom of motion. Sex work is not recognized as work; it is thought to be denigrating and damaging to women [30] [9]; [21]. Anti-trafficking campaigns often hold this to be self-evident, and feel that since sex work cannot be a choice (since no woman would choose her own oppression), women must be rescued from the trade [10], [18].…”

“…The "problem" 8 of trafficking -thought to encompass the victims, traffickers and migrants more generally -is to be kept out of sovereign borders through heavy policing. 9 In this characterization, the lines between criminal, victim, migrant, and sex worker are blurred and any of these parties can be viable targets for anti-trafficking interventions. The ambiguous nature of distinctions between traffickers and victims is illustrated in Fig.…”