This book explores the triangular dynamics of securitisation and desecuritisation that underpin the EU’s approach to trafficking in women for sexual exploitation. That is, the progressive securitisation of trafficking in women for sexual exploitation within the EU’s anti-trafficking policies and the existence of two distinct and competing approaches that coexist among feminist struggles against such trend and that largely follow the two opposing views that structure feminist debates on prostitution: a neo-abolitionist approach, on the one hand, that is increasingly defended from within EU institutions, and has therefore become increasingly entangled with the securitisation of trafficking in women; and a sex work approach, on the other hand, that has been largely relegated to the domains of academia and civil society. As such, this book addresses the intersection of security and feminist neo-abolitionism within the EU’s anti-trafficking policies, as well as the de-securitising potential of the anti-trafficking advocacy of both neo-abolitionist and sex worker organisations operating at EU level. This book is unique in that it unprecedentedly brings together three bodies of literature that rarely interact: Critical Security Studies, EU Gender Studies and the feminist literature on prostitution and trafficking in women and demonstrates their fruitful interaction in an extensive empirical analysis of the EU’s internal security, violence against women and anti-trafficking policies.
Author(s): Lucrecia Rubio Grundell
Series: Gender and Politics
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 261
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
About This Book
Praise for Security Meets Gender Equality in the EU
Contents
About the Author
Abbreviations
List of Figures
1 Introduction
The Triangular Dynamic of Securitisation and Desecuritisation Underpinning the EU’s Approach to Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation
Security, Gender Equality, Trafficking in Women and the EU
The EU’s Approach to Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation
First Phase: The Incipient Intersection of Security and Violence Against Women
Second Phase: Furthering the Intersection of Security and Neo-Abolitionism
Third Phase: Legalising the Intersection Between Security and Neo-Abolitionism
Fourth Phase: Crystallising the Intersection Between Security and Neo-Abolitionism
Aim and Arguments
Securitisation by Contagion
The EP’s Neo-Abolitionist Turn
The Intersection of Security Concerns and Neo-Abolitionist Ideals
Unmaking the Securitisation of Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation
Methodology and Data
Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis
Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ Approach
Critical Frame Analysis
Relationality and Context
Data, Sources and Terminology
Structure of the Book
References
2 Internal Security and the EU: The Securitisation by Contagion of Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation
Critical Security Studies and the EU
Discourses, Practices and the Logic of Security
Security and Identity
The EU and the Securitisation of Immigration
The EU and the Securitisation of Transnational Organised Crime
The EU’s Internal Security Domain: Origin and Evolution
First Phase: Freedom of Movement and Compensatory Security Measures
Second Phase: Popular Unease and Globalised (In)Security
Third Phase: Managing Risk
Fourth Phase: Continuity and Convergence
Conclusions
References
3 Prostitution and the EU: Neoliberalism, Vulnerability and Security
The Rise of Neo-abolitionism
Neo-abolitionism and the Neoliberalism–Vulnerability–Security Nexus
Neo-abolitionism and Neoliberalism
Neoliberal Governance and Vulnerability
Neoliberalism, Vulnerability and Security
Explaining the European Parliament’s Neo-abolitionist Turn
Swedish Feminists as Neo-abolitionist Norm Entrepreneurs
Velvet Triangles and Transnational Advocacy Networks
The Neoliberalisation of Violence Against Women
Illustrating the EP’s Neo-abolitionist Turn
First Phase: Gender (In)Equality and the Ambivalence Towards Prostitution
Second Phase: Gender (In)Equality, Women’s Human Rights and Vulnerability
Third Phase: The Othering and Securitisation of Violence Against Women
Fourth Phase: The European Parliament’s Neo-abolitionist Turn
Conclusions
References
4 The Intersection of Security and Neo-abolitionism in the EU’s Anti-trafficking Policies
Trafficking in Women: Neo-abolitionist Approaches and Sex Work Critiques
Security Meets Neo-abolitionism in the EU’s Anti-trafficking Policies
First Phase: The Intersection of Security and Violence Against Women
Second Phase: The Intersection of Security and Neo-abolitionism
Third Phase: Legalising the Intersection of Security and Neo-abolitionism
Fourth Phase: Crystallising the Intersection of Security and Neo-abolitionism
The Complex Othering of Trafficked Victims and Its Exclusionary Effects
Disidentifying Trafficked Women, Constructing Trafficked Victims
Strengthening Security, Limiting Protection
Othering Trafficked Victims, Constructing the European Self
Conclusions
References
5 Desecuritising Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation Through a Neo-Abolitionist Approach? The European Women’s Lobby
Critical Security Studies and the Unmaking of Security
The EU, Civil Society Organisations and the EWL’s Monopoly
EU Funding (Disputes) and (Feminist) Civil Society Organisations
Representativeness Criteria: Presence, Structure, Transparency and Interests
The EU and the (Defective) Institutionalisation of Intersectionality
The EWL’s Advocacy and Approach to Prostitution and Trafficking in Women
The Desecuritising Potential of the EWL’s Neo-Abolitionist Approach to Prostitution and Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation
Conclusions
References
6 Desecuritising Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation Through a Sex Work Approach? Aradau, Post-anarchism and Whore-Walks
Politics Out of Security in the Situation of Trafficking in Women
Sex Workers’ Collective Mobilisation (at EU Level): Obstacles and Strategies
TAMPEP and the ICRSE: Advocacy and Approach to Sex Work and Trafficking
Contesting Aradau: On the Desecuritising Potential of Sex Work at EU Level
On the Limits of Sex Work in the Desecuritisation of Trafficking in Women at EU level
Unmaking Security: On Post-Anarchism and Whore-Walks
Conclusions
References
7 Conclusions
References
Index
