Contested boundaries: The moralization and politicization of prostitution in German cities

Abstract

The local regulation of prostitution in Germany is a contested area of urban politics. In this issue area, morality claims intersect with the material interests of home- and landowners and the security demands of ‘ordinary’ citizens. The Prostitution Law of 2001 has liberalized the legal framework: the legislation ‘normalized’ sex work, triggering the re-definition of urban strategies to regulate prostitution. This article analyses the conflict dynamics and the framing of conflicts over regulations in four German cities. It identifies the main actors, coalition-building processes and the framing of conflicts, and links these elements to the resulting policies. With regard to theory, it explores the relevance of classical explanatory approaches to local governance such as party politics, urban growth coalitions, political culture and bureaucratic politics to the value-laden issue of prostitution. It thereby contributes to the growing academic interest in the nature of morality policies and the question of the specific conditions under which prostitution is framed as a moral issue or as a ‘normal’ subject within urban politics.

Ruling under a shadow of moral hierarchy: Regulatory intermediaries in the governance of prostitution

“…The two German states, North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria, employ completely different governance strategies in implementing national prostitution law and in responsibilizing private intermediaries for this task. Thereby, both cases reflect the large spectrum of regulatory approaches vivid in Germany for coping with the manifold problems related with prostitution policy (Pates 2012; Euchner 2014; Grohs 2019). North Rhine Westphalia heavily relies on indirect governance modes and the responsibilization of a specific set of private actors, whereas Bavaria is much more reluctant in delegating responsibility to private actors and if the states does so, it prioritizes a specific group of private actors over others (see Table 3).…”

“…Thus, a group of political actors was ruling that strongly supported the goals of the national law from 2001 (also adopted by a left‐wing government coalition). Although in the meanwhile, this law was strongly criticized as facilitating pimping and procuring (Pates 2012; Euchner 2014; Grohs 2019), especially members of the Green Party continued to back up the reforms and the related goals. Their main argument was that sex workers require better working conditions, professional counseling, and supervision as it would be unrealistic to assume that the demand of sexual services will decrease through any prohibitive approaches.…”

Indirect moral governance in prostitution policy: How regulators incorporate stigmatized actors in intermediation processes

“…also Advocacy Coalition Theory on the role of value‐based policy‐making; Weible et al, 2009; Wellstead, 2017). While the empowerment of private actors both in the regulation and, especially, the implementation of morality policy laws has been discussed very recently (Engeli & Rothmayr, 2016; Euchner & Preidel, 2018; Grohs, 2020; Wagenaar & Altink, 2012; Wagenaar et al, 2017), no study so far, at least to our knowledge, has explored morality policy from the point of view of regulatory intermediation. Similarly, the scholarly community concerned with indirect governance has overlooked morality policies (Euchner, 2019a, p. 16).…”

Support for Prostitution Legalization in Romania: Individual, Household, and Socio-cultural Determinants

“…In the absence of a thorough and updated documentation of public attitudes towards prostitution, the government's approach runs a serious risk of drifting away from the population's view and therefore misrepresenting the common perception on prostitution and enacting laws that run counter to the interest of significant groups in the population of a country. When dealing with a matter which is often classified as morality politics (Grohs, 2020;Wagenaar & Altink, 2012), the careful and responsible production of knowledge on sex work is even more relevant in order to correctly orient prostitution policy in a way that works for citizens. Although there is a lack of consensus regarding the definition of morality politics, Wagenaar & Altink (2012) distinguish six characteristics that help understand why it is difficult to design prostitution policy.…”