This international conference aims to critically examine justice as a framework for understanding the situation of sex workers in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic region, and more broadly in the European context. The conference will present localised knowledge and perspectives steaming both form academia as well as sex workers activism.

This is an in-person event and is open to interested persons upon registration.

About the conference

Justice has recently become the framework increasingly used to conceptualise the (dis)recognition of marginalised groups, and many feminist theorists have discussed this concept. It refers to a variety of issues and dimensions, including recognition, redistribution and political participation, and is a fruitful concept that provides a multi-dimensional framework for discussing the situation of sex workers in a variety of contexts.

The objective of this conference is to further examine the potential of utilising the concept of justice in relation to sex work and to de-centre it by inviting scholars from the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe. The conference will foster discussions on how justice for sex workers can be realised as well as will be arena to present empirical examples of how justice is (or is not) delivered in various aspects such as citizenship, migration, digital rights, crime, health, taxes, stigmatisation, access to the political sphere. The conference will link various perspectives on sex workers' rights, including those rising from academia as well as from sex workers' perspectives, as researchers and representatives of their communities.

The intention of this conference is to facilitate a critical examination of the contemporary developments that are shaped by a multitude of crises, including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the rise of anti-gender mobilisations, and democratic backsliding. Furthermore, the conference will provide insights into the under-researched past and the post-socialist transformations of political, economic and social realities and their impact on the rights of sex workers.

The conference will address the following themes:

• Theoretical approaches to the study of justice for sex workers
• Justice for sex workers in the CEE and the Baltics and beyond
• Mobilisations for sex workers' rights across the Baltic region and the CEE

In case of any questions, please contact Anna Ratecka, anna.ratecka@sh.se

Organizers:

Anna Ratecka ┃ Södertörn University, SUSTAINACTION project
Agata Dziuban ┃ Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland

The conference is funded by the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) External link. at Södertörn University.