Designing Prostitution Policy

Hendrik Wagenaar is Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield. In 2013 he completed a 3-year international comparative study of prostitution policy. He is a founding member of the COST Action ‘Comparing European Prostitution Policies’. He publishes in the areas of citizen participation, prostitution policy, practice theory and interpretive policy analysis. Helga Amesberger is senior researcher at the Institute of Conflict Research in Vienna. Her main research topics are violence against women (current and historical), racism and prostitution policy and she has widely published on these subjects. Her book about sex work in Austria is regarded as standard reference. In 2012 she was awarded the Austrian Käthe Leichter Preis for her work on women’s studies and the promotion of equality for women. Sietske Altink has an MA in philosophy and was a researcher at the comparative study of prostitution policy. Since the 1980s she has researched prostitution (for the ministry of social affairs), worked with migrants at the Foundation against Trafficking in Women and managed the Dutch NGO ‘ De Rode Draad” (Red Thread). She is a key figure in the prostitution debate in the Netherlands and is sought out for her wide knowledge of prostitution policy for lectures, presentations and media appearances.

• IntroductionChallenges of prostitution policyThe local governance of prostitution: regulatory drift and implementation captureThe national governance of prostitution: political rationality and the politics of discourseUnderstanding the policy field: migration, prostitution, trafficking and exploitationProstitution policy beyond trafficking: collaborative governance in prostitutionSummary and conclusions

"A splendid, evidence-based analysis of policies related to sexual commerce and labor migration in Europe. Scholars and policymakers will find the book's findings of tremendous value as they weigh alternative proposals for regulating commercial sex. " Ronald Weitzer, George Washington University, USA