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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
"The Personal Is Political Science": Epistemological And Methodological Issues In Feminist Social Science Research On Prostitution, Emily St. Denny
"The Personal Is Political Science": Epistemological And Methodological Issues In Feminist Social Science Research On Prostitution, Emily St. Denny
Journal of International Women's Studies
Unlike academic and policy discussions over enduring and pervasive social problems like poverty or ill health, which focus on how they should be tackled, debates concerning individuals in prostitution are divided over how, and to what extent, prostitution even is a problem. This has led to apparently intractable disagreement over the legitimate representation of a subject at the juncture between vulnerable invisibility and liberated agency. Concretely, this raises a paradox whereby feminist researchers, seeking to facilitate emancipation through the illumination of the experiences of a stigmatised and invisible subject, must carefully give voice to the voiceless without speaking on their …
Colonial Policies And The Rise Of Transactional Sex In Kenya, Felix M. Muchomba
Colonial Policies And The Rise Of Transactional Sex In Kenya, Felix M. Muchomba
Journal of International Women's Studies
The literature on the role of policy on prostitution has focused on criminal law, largely ignoring economic and urban policies. This article examines the emergence and development of prostitution in Kibera—an informal urban settlement in Nairobi, Kenya—and the role played by government policy. Records show that a rapid growth in prostitution accompanied Kibera’s transition from a military exercise ground to an informal settlement. Drawing on primary and secondary historical sources, this paper argues that colonial government policies of land alienation, taxation, and inequitable urban housing created a social context that promoted the migration of women into Nairobi and into Kibera, …