"Maybe I’m a quiet activist": sex work scholars and negotiations of ‘minor’ academic-activism

Mary Laing; Ian R. Cook; Tom Baker; Octavia Calder-Dawe

doi:10.1177/13634607211068690

"Maybe I’m a quiet activist": sex work scholars and negotiations of ‘minor’ academic-activism

Mary Laing, Ian R. Cook, Tom Baker, Octavia Calder-Dawe

Sociology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

With the intensification of calls for social ‘impact’ from research, there is renewed emphasis on academic-activism as a means to realize social change. But what ‘counts’ as activism in these visions of academic-activist impact? Drawing on interviews with sex work scholars in the United Kingdom and Aotearoa New Zealand, we examine the borders—and the disruption of borders—between ‘traditional’ forms of activism and a wider array of more ‘minor’ practices frequently perceived as too ‘ordinary’ to claim that label. In doing this, we explore quiet, implicit and everyday forms of activism, arguing that activism is embodied, frequently undertaken by those who do not self-identify as activists, and sits ambivalently within broader institutional drives for research-based ‘impact’.

Original language	English
Number of pages	18
Journal	Sexualities
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607211068690
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 1 Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

M1 - 136346072110686

Keywords

sex work scholars
activism
minor theory
impact agenda
identity

Access to Document

10.1177/13634607211068690Licence: CC BY

http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127807046&partnerID=8YFLogxK

Cite this

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abstract = "With the intensification of calls for social {\textquoteleft}impact{\textquoteright} from research, there is renewed emphasis on academic-activism as a means to realize social change. But what {\textquoteleft}counts{\textquoteright} as activism in these visions of academic-activist impact? Drawing on interviews with sex work scholars in the United Kingdom and Aotearoa New Zealand, we examine the borders—and the disruption of borders—between {\textquoteleft}traditional{\textquoteright} forms of activism and a wider array of more {\textquoteleft}minor{\textquoteright} practices frequently perceived as too {\textquoteleft}ordinary{\textquoteright} to claim that label. In doing this, we explore quiet, implicit and everyday forms of activism, arguing that activism is embodied, frequently undertaken by those who do not self-identify as activists, and sits ambivalently within broader institutional drives for research-based {\textquoteleft}impact{\textquoteright}.",

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