Conducts research and collects data on the global history of labour, workers, and labour relations

Conference: Selling Sex in the City

Date: 
25 April 2013 to 27 April 2013
Location: 
Amsterdam/The Hague

Conference: "Selling Sex in the City: Prostitution in World Cities, 1600 to the Present".

Concluding conference of the project with the same name. The aim of this project is to write a global and comparative history of female prostitution from 1600 to the present. Notwithstanding the large number of national studies on particular aspects of prostitution (e.g. regulation, attitudes or labour market), no international comparison over a significant span of time has been attempted.
This project attempts to achieve a comprehensive overview on prostitution from a global labour history perspective. It studies prostitution as a societal phenomenon as well as a form of labour, and focuses, therefore, on prostitutes' working/living conditions and work culture.

Organization

Papers included

Based upon their cosmopolitan character with regard to commercial and/or military activities, we have decided to minimally include the following cities in the project:

  • Africa: Cairo, Casablanca, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Cape Town
  • Asia: Shanghai, Bombay, Manila, Surabaya
  • Europe: Amsterdam, Florence/Rome, Istanbul, London, Moscow, Paris, Hamburg/Berlin, Stockholm
  • Latin America: Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Guatemala City
  • North America: Manhattan/New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New Orleans
  • Oceania: Sydney, Melbourne