Hong Kong is a highly developed, neoliberal and post-British-colonial region. It has a history of being a trafficking hub for both opium and humans, which includes the enslavement of girls and women for sexual exploitation. The aim of this thesis is to use a Feminist, Bourdieusian framework to explore the local environment, the experiences of women selling sex, and the relationship between the two, in order to explain the persistence of control of women by third parties in the sale of sex in Hong Kong. The research can be described as pragmatic, utilising a predominantly qualitative, mixed-methods approach to answer the research questions, within the aforementioned framework. This approach includes the life ‘herstories’ of eight women who are legal residents of Hong Kong and involved in the sale of sex, in order to allow for deeper exploration of their feelings and experiences; expert interviews with five community workers from different NGOs to share their knowledge from the ground; participant observation from volunteering with a civil society group and living in Hong Kong to explore the local environment; qualitative content analysis of six Hong Kong newspapers; and a survey with 189 respondents on social attitudes. Findings suggest that control persists, and it does so because the political and business elite are maximising their interests, via inaction, in terms of structural challenges and symbolic violence against women. This suggests that symbolic struggle and collective action are needed to change social attitudes and press the government of the Hong Kong SAR for social and political change.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:683970 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Ng, Angie |
| Publisher | Durham University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11504/ |
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