Overview

This volume engages with the question of how labour is transforming under late capitalism, and what insights the study of sex work offers into these transformations. Presenting case studies from the Global North, this book situates sex work within the frameworks of neoliberal governance, digitalization, platformization, and gig economy to examine how economic relations, labour practices, and activism are changing under these conditions. It demonstrates that sex work offers a powerful lens through which to understand the contradictions of contemporary labour regimes: autonomy bound up with precarity, visibility with surveillance, and agency with algorithmic control. The book highlights the mobility and agency of labouring subjectivities, showing how resistance often emerges through strategic engagement with the very structures produced by neoliberalism. While affirming the importance of legal recognition of sex work, the book contends that this alone is insufficient to disrupt the broader systems of exclusion and inequality experienced by sex workers and embedded in late capitalist economies. This book will be of interest to scholars and advanced readers engaged in debates on labour, sexuality, and political economy. It is particularly relevant to those working in critical labour studies, feminist theory, sociology, and socio-legal research, as well as to policymakers and activists concerned with labour rights and social justice.

Full Product Details

Author:   Iztok Šori (Peace Institute, Slovenia) ,  Majda Hrženjak (Peace Institute, Slovenia)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.540kg
ISBN:  

9781041075004

ISBN 10:   1041075006
Pages:   196
Publication Date:   10 December 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Charting Precarity, Agency, and Politics of Sex Work; PART I: The digital reconfiguration of sex work under neoliberalism; 1. Webcamming: Where Digital Labour Meets Smooth Capital; 2. Platform Sex Work and Workplace Self-Help Literature: Discourses of Authenticity and Individualism; 3. A Peek Behind the Veil of the Intermediary Status of Porn Platforms: The Atypical Nature of Porn Content Creators’ Employment in the UK; 4. Unveiling Stigma in the Digital Age: Exploring Attitudinal Differences in Perceptions of the Exchange of Sexual Services for Payment in the United States; PART II: Quality of work in the gig economy; 5. Ambivalences of Precarity: Sex Workers’ Assessments of Quality of Work in Slovenia’s Sex Industry; 6. Stigmatized (M)Others: Analysing the Navigation of Sex Work and Mothering in Canada Through an Antiwork Lens; PART III: The politics of resistance and infrastructures of solidarities; 7. Sex Work, Post-Socialist Precarity and Civil Society: Shifting Frames of Recognition of Sex Work in Poland after 1989; 8. Playing with the Law: The Greek Sex Workers’ Movement’s Struggle for Recognition, State Feminisms, and Work under Neoliberalism; 9. Building Social Unionism: Sex Workers’ Struggles and Their Alliances in Spain

Reviews

Author Information

Iztok Šori (PhD in Sociology) is a researcher and director at the Peace Institute, Slovenia, an independent research and advocacy organization dedicated to human rights, democracy and social justice. His academic interests focus on the intersections of gender, migration, and labour. With extensive experience in both national and international research projects, he has recently led a project on occupational risks in sex work. In addition to his research activities, Šori works closely with advisory bodies on science and gender equality. His most recent publication (2024) examines the affective framing of migration as a security threat by right-wing populist movements. Majda Hrženjak (PhD in Sociology) is a senior researcher at the Peace Institute, Slovenia. Her work explores care work, gender, and labour market inequalities through an interdisciplinary lens that bridges sociology and gender studies. She has coordinated and contributed to numerous national and international research projects and serves on editorial and scientific boards, including Men and Masculinities. Her scholarship is published in leading international journals and edited collections, with a focus on the social organization of care, labour mobility, and intersectional inequalities. Her most recent work (2025) examines the governance of labour migration in senior care homes.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions