This study investigates young Gambians’ social and economic aspirations. It considers how young Gambians’ aspirations are shaped and negotiated, and the strategies they employ to achieve their objectives. Whilst existing research tends to view young Gambians’ social and economic advancement through a lens of international migration, this study focuses on the aspirations and strategies of those who find themselves in a state of ‘involuntary immobility’ – that is, an aspiration to migrate but the inability to do so. The study looks at how two groups of young urban Gambians from low socio-economic backgrounds pursue local livelihoods. Known as ‘beach hustlers’ and ‘chanters’, these youths take advantage of the resources of the tourism sector and of opportunities provided by information and communication technologies (ICT) in an attempt to fulfil their aspirations. Drawing on data collected from multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2013 and 2014 in Kololi, the country’s main tourism hotspot on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, and Brikama, where internet use in cybercafés has rapidly grown over the past two decades, I use the cases of ‘beach hustlers’ and ‘chanters’ (cyber hustlers) to shed light on the life-trajectories of young Gambians. I discuss how ‘beach hustlers’ take advantage of the Gambia’s booming tourism industry by engaging in diverse informal economic activities. I then consider how ‘chanters’ accumulate wealth by employing various methods and ruses in their interactions with toubabs (white westerners) through internet-mediated encounters. This study shows that the majority of young Gambians who find it increasingly difficult to migrate to the West pursue local livelihoods to fulfil their aspirations of social and economic advancement. The aspirations and strategies of the hustlers in this study are shaped and influenced by intervening social, cultural and religious obligations and expectations. The study argues that the formation of Gambian hustlers’ aspirations is the result of an interplay between familial and societal dynamics; such as generational and gender relations and reciprocal social exchange, and personal desires of upward social mobility. The study further shows that the strategies young Gambians employ are influenced by the structural constraints and opportunities that appear in specific space–time conditions. By doing so, this study contributes to the literature on the aspirations of urban youths in developing countries and the strategies they employ to achieve them, and how young people experience and respond to conditions of ‘involuntary immobility’.

Over the last ten to fifteen years, prostitution policies in England have grown increasingly welfarist in tone, stressing the relative victimhood and vulnerability of women who sell sex. This thesis explores important facets of these emergent narratives. Using a qualitative multi-method approach, it investigates the manner in which 21 policy-actors and seven policy documents - principally originating from the English prostitution ‘policy subsystem’ - interpret and represent prostitution. From a methodological perspective, generated findings are explored through the dual interpretative frameworks of critical discourse analysis and sociological frame theory. These frameworks require that localised narratives be contextualised within, and explained by reference to, broader discursive and cultural conditions. In deference to this, findings are situated within rich bodies of academic literature which commentate on, promote and critique various political philosophies, ideological discourses, and critical social theories, such as (neo)-liberalism, a number of feminisms, and Bourdieusian sociology. More specifically, this thesis explores the way 21 policy actors, and four of the selected policy documents, represent the subjecthood of women who sell sex. It approaches this endeavour via discussions of vulnerability, subjectivity/choice, and gender. Here, it concludes that actors and documents draw on, and contribute to, a plurality of complimentary and contradictory ideological discourses, to interpret and represent certain facets of a woman in prostitution’s ‘self’. Substantively, it suggests that - whilst there is a broad consensus regarding the importance of the internal individualism of women who sell sex, and the instrumentality of externalities with regard to shaping her social spaces and ability to choose - questions of gender remain highly contested. Thereafter, this thesis explores the way the same policy-actors, and three distinct policy documents, discursively include/exclude prostitution from violence against women and girls (VAWG) narratives. It begins by exploring how documents and actors define violence in generic terms, and to what degree they adhere to a feminist sociological model when explaining the aetiology and causality of VAWG. It then discusses how prostitution’s relationship to VAWG is framed, and inclusion/exclusion is justified. Here, it concludes that whilst there is a general commitment to the feminist sociological model of VAWG, the question of whether or not prostitution should be included beneath its auspices is highly contentious – pitting classically oppositional coalitions of actors against one another and creating intramural disputes within coalitions themselves. Drawing these strands together, concluding chapters explore framing dynamics. In total, this thesis offers a number of contributions to the fields of prostitution and VAWG policy studies. It demonstrates that while debates in the English prostitution policy subsystem frequently appear to be comprised of two bitterly oppositional ‘advocacy coalitions’, the two groups share multiple areas of ideological consensus, at least with regard to how they understand prostitution. Indeed, more often than not, coalitions differ principally with regard to their prognostic frames and their judgments of material prevalence. In turn, this disrupts extant literature on advocacy coalitions, which suggests that policy-actors organise themselves into groups by reference to their core belief systems, whilst showing a willingness to compromise on secondary considerations. These areas of consensus by no means suggests that matters are straightforward, however. Indeed, this thesis provides evidence that many facets of the prostitution debate are nuanced, complex and ambivalent – that actors entertain and promote contradictory narratives, that coalitions suffer intra-mural fractures over discursive fault-lines, and that framing preferences are strategically engaged. With regard to the last point, this thesis makes a significant methodological contribution to the field of discourse analysis, insofar as it explores the manner in which respondents can be represented as both formed through, and active users of, discourse. It does so by bringing two distinct discourse theories/methods into dialogue with one another. Over and above this, this thesis seizes upon the theoretical opportunities presented when original findings and extant academic scholarship are used to elucidate and develop one another. Most notably it deploys the work of critical social theorists, Martha Fineman and Pierre Bourdieu, to explore new ways in which the harms of prostitution can be conceived.

Previous research on female street sex workers (FSSWs) has primarily concentrated on the stigmatisation of women's involvement in the sex industry particularly with reference to the spread of HIV/AIDS. The response of the criminal justice system to the regulation of the illegal aspects of women's engagement in street sex work has also been criticised. However, the impact of street sex work on the health and wellbeing of these women requires further research. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions and needs of female street sex workers in relation to their own health and wellbeing. The study used a qualitative mixed methods approach that included analysis of three sets of data: visual data, secondary data and primary data. There were 10 FSSWs recruited for the primary data sample. The epistemological position underpinning this study is social constructivism and a feminist paradigm has informed the conduct of the research process and data analysis. The theoretical application of Bourdieu's framework of habitus, capital and field has provided the lens through which to explore the socially constructed experiences of FSSWs health and wellbeing. Findings from this study revealed that FSSWs experienced poor physical, mental and social health and wellbeing. They faced limited life choices and often felt discriminated against by the agencies and institutions that should have offered support. The women spoke of their personal histories especially traumatic life events in childhood consisting of sexual abuse, neglect, loss, rejection as well as intimate partner violence in adult life. The loss of their children to social services, housing difficulties and addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine were also significant in contributing to social exclusion and their multiple positions of vulnerability. This study contributes to the body of work on women's health and wellbeing. In particular, it adds to our understanding of the lived experiences of women involved in street sex work. A key public health priority should be the development of policies and systems to provide quality services to support the health, safety and wellbeing of FSSWs.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de comprendre d’une part, le parcours migratoire de femmes d’Afrique subsaharienne vers l’Europe et, d’autre part, leur entrée dans la prostitution, c’est-à-dire les raisons et les facteurs qui les poussent à prendre la décision d’exercer la prostitution. Dans ce travail, j’ai mené une étude empirique avec une méthodologie qualitative basée sur la rencontre, l’échange et la coproduction de savoirs. Des récits de vie ont été réalisés avec des femmes venant principalement de l’Afrique subsaharienne, exerçant ou ayant exercé dans le milieu de la prostitution durant leur parcours migratoire en Allemagne ou en France. Dans l'ensemble, il s'agit d'analyser les tendances qui émergent à partir de cette enquête. / The objective of this thesis is to understand, on the one hand, the migratory trajectory of women from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe and, on the other hand, their entry into prostitution, that is to say, the reasons and factors that were responsible for them making the decision go into prostitution. For this study, I carried out an empirical project using a qualitative methodology based on the encounter, exchange and co-production of knowledge. Individual life stories were shared by women mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, working or having worked in the field of prostitution during their migratory journeys to Germany or to France. Overall, the goal is to analyze the trends that emerge from this study.