This thesis offers new ways to read the prostitute body in Ireland, by undertaking a feminist examination of the categorisation and censorship of Irish women's sexuality through issues of prostitution. Specifically, it evaluates cultural representations of female sex workers in literature, on screen and online since 1980. This research asks questions about women's agency and the elements of performativity involved in soliciting sex, as well as analysing how the prostitute has become an embodied symbol of modernity in Ireland. By using a feminist cultural studies approach which takes in literature, television, for, radio and the media, and.moves between canonical and non-canonical texts, this project offers an intertextual and interdisciplinary critique of the representation of prostitution in modern Irish culture. Second wave feminism has produced a number of reductive rhetorical claims about the victimised status of sex workers, and this study aims to provide a more nuanced reading of prostitution ill contemporary Ireland. This project works in two ways: the first section involves a consideration of the self-representation and constructed personae of sex workers through memoirs and online forums. Section II examines how the prostitute figure has been reproduced in a range of cultural formats, suggesting modes of embodiment and resistance. I engage with current debates on decriminalisation, nation, and sex trafficking to show that prostitution is a crucial political issue for feminism. This thesis highlights the cultural construction of the prostitute during a period of rapid change in socio-sexual attitudes. The evolving sex industry is at the intersection of old and new Ireland: it highlights issues of cosmopolitanism, migration, racism, and marginality. By drawing together cross-media representations of prostitution in our society, this thesis illustrates the importance of the discourse of prostitution to interrogating the social positioning of women in 21st century Ireland.

It can be argued that ”sustainable tourism” is considered to be a solution for ensuring the industry’s long-term survival. However, the concept of “sustainable tourism” is contested. A key issue is a lack of consensus in how stakeholders define “sustainable tourism”, and this creates communication challenges when different stakeholders discuss the concept. Within the field of sustainable tourism, there is limited literature on the meanings that stakeholder groups attribute to the concept of “sustainable tourism”. This study aims to address this theoretical gap, by exploring the meanings that stakeholders attribute to “sustainable tourism”, and the potential for the creation of shared meanings. This thesis addresses this gap by applying a social semiotic approach to exploring the meanings attributed to “sustainable tourism” by various stakeholder groups. Social semiotics is a theory that studies meanings created in groups, and is applied in this thesis as an analysis of “sustainable tourism” stakeholders’ web-pages. A total of 18 webpages from five stakeholder groups: the Public sector, the Tourism industry, Universities and research centres, the Third sector and Environmental and tourism consultancies, have been analysed for the purpose of this study. The findings of the thesis add value to both theory and practice. The theoretical contribution is twofold. Conceptually, the study has contributed to the theory of “sustainable tourism” by establishing that there is no orderliness in the ways that stakeholders conceptualise “sustainable tourism” meanings. Instead, further fragmentation of values, according to clusters or individual organisations within stakeholder groups, occurs. The meanings identified in this study can be organised into five dualities and tensions, and represent the positions in power relations in “sustainable tourism”. Methodologically, the study has contributed to the body of knowledge by introducing social semiotics into “sustainable tourism” research methodology, and by developing an original and replicable research instrument based on methods of social semiotics. The practical implications of the thesis are twofold as well. The meanings identified in the study can help breach perceptual gap between organisations in different stakeholder groups and clusters, promoting more effective communication, inclusion and participation in “sustainable tourism”. Furthermore, the original research instrument developed for this study can be adopted by practitioners for the analysis of their own webpage for the meanings conveyed.

This study investigates factors influencing women's involvement in sex work, their experiences, and their perception of their ability to manage roles and identities. The aim was to hear the stories of those involved, focusing on the meaning for women of their childhood and the pathways taken in adult life. Whilst reasons for entry into sex work are well documented, reasons for exiting or continuing, particularly from the perspective of those involved, are less clear. From an examination of the narratives of twenty four women, this study focuses on whether it is possible to identify key factors influencing routes into, out of, and continued involvement in sex work. Qualitative research methods were used as these are particularly suited to uncovering meanings assigned to experiences. In depth interviews were undertaken, transcribed and analysed using grounded theory. Data analysis drawing also on developmental theories of attachment and resilience identified themes of continuity and discontinuity, managing and not managing, arising from the sense women made of childhood, adult and sex work experiences. Three different psychological and behavioural strategies were identified, each leading to different pathways through often similar experiences. These differences informed, and were informed by, a sense of identity, of agency and choice about involvement, continued involvement and exiting. The study concludes that although age of first involvement in sex work is an important factor in influencing outcome, so also is the experience of childhood and adult adversity and the sense made of it by those involved. The findings suggest that early damaging experiences, which may increase the likelihood of involvement, also affect the consequent ability to deal with the experience of sex work and simultaneously 'manage' other life experiences. This provides an important perspective for reflecting on the sex work/victim-hood discourses and has relevance for future service provision, suggesting that from policy level down, there is a need to develop the facilitation of the provision of a 'secure base' for those involved in sex work which has meaning for them.

This thesis is an exploration of the coping strategies used by women involved in sex work, to manage the different risks inherent in the field. The literature review considers the ways in which women seek to manage a stigmatised identity in order to promote their own psychological wellbeing. The research paper explores the reasons women remain in street based sex work, and, using grounded theory, seeks to understand how psychological and social factors work to both promote resilience and maintain involvement. Finally, the critical appraisal reflects on the methodological approaches necessary to conduct a research project with street-based sex workers, and explores the management of risk in this context.

The following qualitative study explored the perceptions of success of interventions for young girls involved in commercial sexual exploitation. It stressed the importance of giving young girls (and their advocates) a chance to express their opinions on intervention strategies affecting them. The study further argued that their voices are crucial to feed into an international discourse on intervention strategies that addresses international aspects of the commercial sex trade. The research focused on three Commonwealth cities: London (United Kingdom), Vancouver (Canada), and Sydney (Australia). Sexual exploitation of children is a pervasive and complex phenomenon. We are now, arguably, more familiar with the extent, process and effects of it. An increase in media awareness and national and international legal frameworks has provided new opportunities to examine the issue locally and globally. Nonetheless, little research has examined the intervention strategies put in place to tackle commercial sexual exploitation and fewer still have looked pan-nationally at the success of those interventions. Primary data collection incorporated interviews and observation with young people and social professionals, police, health workers, and researchers. This thesis also explored the historical, geographic, and soclo-political context of youth prostitution through relevant literature and secondary data and richly depicted youth prostitution and under-resourced services struggling to provide multi-agency collaboration. All too often, overstretched staff within serVicesl acked the resourcest o comprehendf ully or integratet he comple)(Ityo f success or fluidity of macro global issues into their practice. An emerging recommendation from this research was predicated on appreciating the different layers, resulting conflicts and synergies of success of intervention (individual, family/community, regional/national, international). Successful intervention depends on how well success has been defined and agreed by stakeholders (for example young people, practitioners, funders and managers) and an understanding of how those views differ. Since young people involved in prostitution appeared to be becoming harder to reach, the importance of their voice is increasingly paramount and may most effectively and safely be represented by trusted advocates in the different (local and global) forums. The results of this research help to build a case for multi-level dialogue and cross-national collaboration, to address international problems complicating local practice, to better define success, and to share good practice and effective interventions.

This thesis considers the mediation of the symbolic representation of the (female street) prostitute by the media in the second half of the twentieth century in Italy. The reality of ‘being’, ‘acting’ or ‘working’ as a prostitute during this complex period between the Italian economic boom, the emergence of worker, student and feminist movements, and the transformation of the Italian sex trade in the late 1980s, has undergone a series of cultural and strategic misrepresentations. The unexpected emergence of a small, unusually well-organized and self-conscious group of prostitutes opened a critical front: questioning and unsettling established representational narratives on paid sex, and breaking the loud silence of Italian feminism on prostitution. This research provides new insight into what these narratives - produced both by prostitutes themselves and by others – simultaneously reveal and conceal: prostitutes and violence against them, masculinity and gender identities. The historical silence of prostitutes, the gaps and precisely what is omitted from the documents require multiple and simultaneous levels of investigation and interpretation framed within an interdisciplinary approach. History, cultural studies, gender and feminist film studies are brought together, allowing the investigation of a range of sources, such as fiction, feminist writings, autobiographies, films, alongside Government Acts, newspaper articles, oral and archival documents. Most of the chosen texts and films have not been previously studied in any depth; their analysis contributes to identify the cultural strategies used to deal with, defer or ‘resolve’ social anxiety towards, and within, gender and gender relationships. This thesis investigates the relationship between feminism and prostitution and provides an understanding of the way that prostitutes have found a public voice, while it reveals the subversive connotation implied in the act of prostitution as ‘performed’, and thus reinterpreted, by prostitute activists.

Although there are conflicting perspectives on prostitution in the feminist literature, female prostitutes are usually regarded as victims of gender-specific exploitation, either in the form of sexual domination or socio-economic inequality. Male prostitution has usually been excluded from feminist analyses on the basis that it is thought to be less exploitative than female prostitution. In this thesis, I expand upon feminist theories of gendered exploitation by comparing the experiences of male, female and transgendered escort sex workers. Using a qualitative approach, my research explores whether prostitution is inherently exploitative and what It conditions create and exacerbate sex workers' vulnerability to victimisation, including the influence of current legal approaches to prostitution.

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Despite being a topic of concern globally, child prostitution is understood neither comprehensively nor critically. In particular, there have been few attempts to develop any depth of understanding of child prostitution in sub-Saharan Africa. Current understandings are largely based on adult perspectives while children and young people’s own experiences of involvement have been marginalized. The study draws on theoretical approaches of children’s rights, radical and liberal feminism, structure and agency, and the Capability Approach, to examine decisions made by children within particular economic, social and cultural structures. Using a participatory approach, 19 participants used a range of visual methods to create stories of their journeys into prostitution and their day-to-day lives within the institution of prostitution. In this way, they demonstrated their own understandings of their own involvement. The study reveals the connections between: i) structural factors: patriarchal society, economic poverty, and cultural norms that govern marriage and limit access to education, ii) threats to livelihoods including HIV/AIDS, orphanhood, and climatic shocks that all contribute to constrain the life choices particularly of girls’ and young women. While it is clear that all but one of the participants exercised agency in deciding to engage in prostitution as a means of survival, they showed how involvement in prostitution further constrained their freedom to live lives that they valued. Describing experiences they endured as ‘being less than human’, they extended understanding of child prostitution by drawing attention to the complex nature of the phenomenon. The thesis ends by recommending a multi-dimensional policy approach to address child prostitution, making suggestions for further research including a deeper understanding of the demand side of prostitution, and recommends the use of the Capability Approach to illuminate questions of human development, human rights and social justice among other marginalized populations in developing countries.

Sex workers in Ethiopia are both stigmatized by mainstream society and sometimes patronized as victims. Whereas western feminism has engaged with sex work on theoretical grounds, the more specific topic of violence against sex workers has been neglected by academia and usually taken for granted. It was in this context that I undertook a feminist research into violence against sex workers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between October 2011 and July 2012. I adopted a post-colonial stance in my research and building on my previous experience in working with sex workers in Addis Ababa, designed a qualitative inquiry that aimed to be as participatory as possible. With the support of a sex workers' association, I conducted five focus group discussions among the same group of 20 sex workers; interviewed 87 sex workers as well as 22 male partners of sex workers, and conducted a survey to assess male attitudes towards sex work among university students. My findings show that sex workers in Addis Ababa, rather than being victims, exhibit agency in choosing sex work over the other low-paying jobs available to unskilled young women and in negotiating their way within the sector; minimizing the dangers they face and maximising their monetary gains. Sex workers also adopt a pragmatic version of sisterhood, supporting each other in times of need amidst competition. My research indicates that sex workers' commodified sexuality and 'their' men's aggressive masculinity lie on continuums with the constructed femininity and masculinity of mainstream Ethiopian society. Lastly, I argue that the violence experienced by sex workers is only an extreme manifestation of the violence largely experienced by Ethiopian women at large which speaks to the highly patriarchal nature of the gender regime in Ethiopia.