Research

I have been researching Swedish sex work policy and discourse since the late 1990s, using social anthropological method and theory. 

What has most interested me are the paradoxes and contradictions within this field; something I explored in my Bachelor's Thesis 'The Influence of Western Ideas in Preparatory Work Leading up to the Sex Purchase Ban' (2000), my Masters Thesis 'The Ideological Sin: Modern Swedish Prostitution Policy as Creating a Sense of Identity and Safety' (2003) and the book Porn, Whores and Feminists (2006). 

In my Doctoral Thesis with the working title 'The Swedish Sex Purchase Ban: Ethnography of a Law' I explore the functions of the Sex Purchase Ban and link these to wider socio-political events and discourses.

To the left you can find more information about my research. See what I have published, read more about my Doctoral Thesis as well as my background. You can also have a look at the interdisciplinary EU research project DemandAT, where we examine approaches addressing and reducing the demand for trafficking in human beings through anti-trafficking efforts and policies. 

In 2003 I published the article 'Sex Workers’ Critique of Swedish Prostitution Policy' on my website. Although it was never formally published in an academic journal, it has been cited and discussed - and critiqued - by activists and academics alike. Here I comment both on the article and on the critique.  

There has been an increase in studies about commercial sex and the effects of the policy in Sweden, much of it also available in English, so I have gathered some of the related research here.