International fieldwork

To advise the best method I composed a positive and negatives to weigh up if an online survey can be beneficial. This was based on research surrounding online surveys. The surveys were decided on due to following positives.

We have now received more clarity on the situation with regards to research.

A lot of Europe has closed their borders and so if we were to travel to Amsterdam we would have been quarantined. Our research had to develop further as most organisations in the uk were closing.

we wanted to continue to focus on sex work, however this became increasingly difficult due to a lot of people self isolating, and the increasing risk this would pose to our own health. As well as this, due to there not being schemes such as the red light district that support sex workers, it is extremely difficult to locate or develop a relationship with a street sex worker without causing any negative backlash.

This led us to creating a survey, and circulating it, to discover public opinion surrounding sex workers and the stigma they experience in society. This was including mentioning the managed sex zones in Liverpool, that are also in areas in Leeds, and looking further into the criminalisation of sex workers and if the perceptions of them impacts the stigma and criminal backlash.

In addition to this we are in the process of organising interviews with a contact in Amsterdam that Sara has helped organise, and also trying to set up interviews with Gemma , who works a lot with sex workers and organisations that help them, A lecturer, Laura, from MMU whose specialist research is feminist theory and sex work. Finally Shelley, a visitor to the LJMU who discussed the sex work industry and the difficulties that people face.

I am hoping the this data will be sufficient in discussing the sex work industry and the stigma they face including backlash from society and criminal justice system. However I don’t know if this will be informative enough.

With regards to the reflective aspect of the research I do believe there is a lot to discuss as throughout there has been numerous amounts of difficulties faced and situations that have led us to change our research, specifically with the very small time frame we are faced with.

We were meant to be going to Amsterdam on Sunday to conduct research into sex workers and Project 1012.

Due to the coronavirus, the university decided to cancel the trip. The government have not issued any recommendations to avoid travel to Holland, however there is of course a risk.

After wasting so much time planning for research we will not be able to do, we now have the difficult task of redesigning our research, to focus on a new research topic and find suitable resources to carry the research out.

First thoughts are working with sex workers and organisations that work along side them. MASH is an organisation in Manchester, and we will be taking part in an organised walk around Liverpool led by someone who works closely with sex workers and offers support. Hopefully this can offer support for our research and present opportunities to develop connections with organisations and potentially workers.

However I do think that in reality this will be a lot harder than we would hope as a group and will require a lot more work and present a lot more challenges such as the issue of very limited timing, having to rewrite our ethics forms, completely changing our research aims and questioning during the interviews.

Hopefully with time more light will be shed on the situation it will become clearer and easier to decide how to move forward.

It is just under one week until we travel to Amsterdam to do research of current and previous sex workers. Over the course of the week I have started to plan the research method that we are all happy with, we have decided on interviews, with semi structured interviews.

I have developed 2 sets of questions, however they will need final refining, as a group to make sure we are all happy every section has been covered.

One set of questions will be mainly focused on the general population of Amsterdam, focusing on the research criteria ‘is it popular within the society in Amsterdam?’, seeing not only what people think of the sex work industry in Amsterdam, but specifically project 1012. The second set of questions are going to be more aimed at current and prior sex workers. I think this could be where we get the bulk of our information. In this section of interviewing, we will be asking if the sex workers are aware of the project 1012, what is their opinion of this project, and do they think it will do what it intended and reduce crime, or do they think it is something that will negatively impact the sex work industry and the women that work there. This way we can see if it is truly beneficial for the sex workers and the industry they work in, or is it negatively impacting the people and their livelihood.

When being in Amsterdam, we will not only be focusing on the sex work industry, but taking part in a tour of Amsterdam, specifically the areas of homelessness, led by someone who has previously lived on the streets of Amsterdam. I think this will be a very eye opening and humbling experience, and could potentially shed light on if there is any connection between homelessness, and the sex industry, and If the person leading the tour has any insight on if sex workers struggle with similar things the homeless may, and if they came across many during their experience of that lifestyle.

Currently, our focus has been directed towards the project 1012, this is a project that was developed in 2007 in order to regenerate the centre of Amsterdam, and try and reduce organised crime such as human trafficking especially in minors, and to reduce the coercion of sexual practices in the centre. from what i can gather there was large failures when implementing this practice. The city council reduced the amount of window prostitutes by 40% and reduced the amount of coffee shops by 50%, however all this did was increase the amount of tourist shops and supermarkets, an in turn essentially sending prostitution underground, increasing the risk and the stigma as it becomes something that needs to be hidden.

I’ve been to Amsterdam before and loved it so very exciting that I’m going again especially for free and to do some research !

Automatically focused thought to sex workers as it’s such a huge aspect of Amsterdam and something that I think will be largely informative. It’s also something that there is large stigma surrounding so always positive to help educate with regards to the stereotype.

Developed our idea to focus on sex workers and the reason behind them taking on that kind of work – thought it would be very interesting to see the contrast between Liverpool and Amsterdams sex workers.

Within the day first set back – all primary research needs to take place in Amsterdam and so the comparison isn’t something we can focus on.

After some research on the Dutch news I discovered a new policy the government are trying to put in place – requiring all sex workers to have a license and criminalise those without. Lots of negative feedback largely within sex workers, contacted a organisation campaigning against the policy – helped gather further understanding and could potentially be helpful when in Amsterdam with regards to interviews. The group largely consists of ex sex workers so a good perspective to understand.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton