Platforms, sex work and their interconnectedness

Swords, Jon; Laing, Mary; Cook, Ian R.

doi:10.1177/13634607211023013

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Ma et al (2022) find that digital platforms are 'gender-agnostic' and allow for vulnerabilities to persist for women using them. Despite the presence of digital sex work platforms other online platforms such as intermediary payment sites and cloud storage prohibit association with digital sex work, therefore, excluding workers from formal online labour market processes (Cowen & Colosi, 2020;Swords et al, 2021).…”

Section: Digital Work: Beyond the Usual Suspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cowen and Colosi (2020) maintain that scholars are beginning to challenge the notion that digital sex work is feminised however, we must question whether the gendered perspective on sex work historically has influenced the invisibilisation of this work in modern labour markets. The platform economy has facilitated a new workspace for this industry and the interconnectedness between platform capitalism and sex work has presented a multitude of opportunities and challenges for workers (Swords et al., 2021). The migration of sex workers to online platforms is an adaptation strategy to seek out safety and income‐earning benefits (Jones, 2015).…”

Section: Digital Work: the Gig Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Beyond the usual suspects: Invisible labour(ers) in futures of work

Gilbert

2023

Geography Compass

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Invisible labour exists within all forms of work. In looking to the future of work (FoW), this article reviews the literature on two separate examples; digital work and the 4IR, to uncover invisible labour within these futures. The focus of this article remains on paid work but recognises that ‘employed’ does not correlate with visible. In contributing to feminist labour geography, this review aims to collate, regroup and evaluate the literature on the FoW in a way which recognises ‘invisible labourers’ through redefining ‘work’ and expanding our perception of the ‘workplace’. It does so in three parts. First, feminist labour geography literature is reviewed to situate the article within its call to broaden the definition of ‘work’. Second, the review addresses digital work and the gig economy, to establish which labourers are receiving the most current academic attention and are, therefore, visible. Feminist literature on work and labourers within unrecognised economic spaces is explored through the example of digital sex work to draw on the concept of ‘invisible labour’ in digital FoW. Third, literature on technologies of the 4IR and labour will be reviewed, with particular reference to the global north bias in FoW studies. Finally, the review will apply the regrouping of the literature to the impending wave of automation in the global garment industry. The article identifies a risk of further invisibalising already precarious and marginalised garment workers and the FoW narrative moves beyond low‐skill labour. Highlighting the wider impacts on the FoW, beyond technology itself, this article calls for the labour geography literature to recognise the shift in our conception of ‘industry’ and women's experience of work within it to encompass invisible labourers' roles which are created, mediated and maintained by new technologies.

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Section: Digital Work: Beyond the Usual Suspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Digital Work: the Gig Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the usual suspects: Invisible labour(ers) in futures of work

Gilbert

2023

Geography Compass

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“…Henry and Farvid analyse online-only sex work from a variety of feminist perspectives and invite further critical analysis of technology-mediated sex work [57]. Swords, Laing and Cook [131] mapped platform interconnectedness by examining how webcam workers linked multiple different platforms to promote their work, attract new clients, get paid and manage their digital identities. In this work, we answer their call to investigate platform use by sex workers during the pandemic.…”

Section: Sex Work and Techmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An enormous range of platforms were used for platform work, including membership/subscription sites: "I'm currently doing [subscription content site], so that's explicit videos and photos for a monthly subscription cost." (P2); clip sites, where creator-generated content is hosted and sold; camming (see earlier definition), phone sex (explicit voice calls [119]) and sexting (the exchange of suggestive text messages [142]) platforms, where the client can contact a sex worker for these services; and sites whose primary focus is in the sale of custom (client-requested) content and physical personal items such as used underwear [114,131].…”

Section: Types Of Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to using online sex work platforms, participants used social media much as other entrepreneurs: to build their brands, advertise for new clients (and direct them to the online sex work platforms through which they offered content and/or services), as well as to network with peers [131]. Participants chose, or switched to platform-mediated work because of the platform affordances: internal payment processing, passive income opportunities (where the sales are made without direct intervention from the sex worker), market share, convenience, age-verification of clients and content control.…”

Section: Types Of Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Risk, Resilience and Reward: Impacts of Shifting to Digital Sex Work

Hamilton¹,

Barakat²,

Redmiles³

2022

Preprint

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Workers from a variety of industries rapidly shifted to remote work at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While existing work has examined the impact of this shift on office workers, little work has examined how shifting from in-person to online work affected workers in the informal labor sector. We examine the impact of shifting from in-person to online-only work on a particularly marginalized group of workers: sex workers. Through 34 qualitative interviews with sex workers from seven countries in the Global North, we examine how a shift to online-only sex work impacted:(1) working conditions, (2) risks and protective behaviors, and (3) labor rewards. We find that online work offers benefits to sex workers' financial and physical well-being. However, online-only work introduces new and greater digital and mental health risks as a result of the need to be publicly visible on more platforms and to share more explicit content. From our findings we propose design and platform governance suggestions for digital sex workers and for informal workers more broadly, particularly those who create and sell digital content.

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