UGIS Film Series features the movie "Remote Sensing"
Monday, October 8th
UGIS Film Series features the movie "Remote Sensing"
with guest speaker, Laura María Agustín, Author of Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry" (2007)
presented by UC Berkeley Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies Division
For further info contact: Avaren Ipsen <avaren [at] sbcglobal [dot] net>
http://ls.berkeley.edu/ugis/isf/newsletter/Sep2007/4.html#Events
University of California, Berkeley
126 Barrows Hall
Monday October 8th, 8 pm (Screening begins)
Remote Sensing
http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c564.shtml
Zed Books and Palgrave Macmillan announce a compelling new book about the sex industry. Sex at the Margins Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry by Laura María Agustín
This groundbreaking book sets out to explode several myths:
* that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work;
* that migrants who sell sex are passive victims; and
* that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest.
Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' disempowers them. Based on extensive research amongst migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustín, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry. Although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy.
Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice.
Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour - Set to be a trailblazer in the study of the sex industry' - Lisa Adkins, Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London
'Undermines our stereotypes and provides a challenging but unforgettable picture' - Jeffrey Weeks, Professor of Sociology, London South Bank University
'Questions some of our most cherished modern assumptions, and shows that a different ethics of concern is possible.' - Arturo Escobar, Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina
Laura María Agustín studies cultural and postcolonial issues linking commercial sex, migration, informal economies and feminist theory. She currently lives in London. Her website is http://www.nodo50.org/conexiones/Laura_Agustin
