Digital sex work: an analysis of the uses of digital media by sex workers in Amsterdam

• Grant number: 22/02146-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: August 08, 2022
• End date: March 29, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Jorge Leite Júnior
• Grantee: Cristiane Vilma de Melo
• Supervisor: John Boy
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands
• Associated to the scholarship: 19/11134-4 - Marks of desire: the construction of pleasure through body modification in alternative online pornography, BP.DR

Abstract

This project presents a proposal for a Research Internship Abroad (BEPE/FAPESP) to be carried out under the supervision of Dr. John D. Boy, in line with research carried out in the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Sociology of Development at Leiden University, Netherlands. In dialogue with the doctoral research in the Brazilian context (FAPESP, n.19/11134-4), the present study aims to understand how sex work performed in digitally mediated contexts has been reconfiguring objective and subjective aspects by condensing categories such as sex work and desire, from the perspective of female-identifying sex workers who work in this market. Since the research is analytically and methodologically situated in Sociology and Digital Anthropology, the research internship abroad amplifies the understanding about the uses of digital media and platforms for the production, sale, and hosting of adult content in Amsterdam, Netherlands, widely regarded as a model country in regulation policies on sex work. As a specific objective and given that sex work is not regulated in Brazil, we seek to understand to what extent the uses of media and digital platforms aimed at sex work have played a prominent role in the Dutch context, as we have observed in Brazil, in contrast. With this, we will shed light on the uses and purposes of these platforms in substantially different social contexts. The methodological design used is of a qualitative nature, based on ethnography and bibliographic research - i.e., (i) documentary, based on the monitoring and analysis of audiovisual materials made available by sex workers on the analyzed platforms; and (ii) in the field, using semi-structured interviews. (AU)