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Security Meets Gender Equality in the EU

The Politics of Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Lucrecia Rubio Grundell

    1. Department of Political Science and Administration, Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

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  • Explores the triangular dynamics of securitisation and de-securitisation
  • Offers a comprehensive empirical analysis of the EU’s anti-trafficking milieu
  • Addresses the anti-trafficking struggles of neo-abolitionist and sex worker organisations as de-securitising strategies

Part of the book series: Gender and Politics (GAP)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Lucrecia Rubio Grundell
    Pages 1-36

  3. Internal Security and the EU: The Securitisation by Contagion of Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation

    • Lucrecia Rubio Grundell
    Pages 37-74

  4. Prostitution and the EU: Neoliberalism, Vulnerability and Security

    • Lucrecia Rubio Grundell
    Pages 75-118

  5. The Intersection of Security and Neo-abolitionism in the EU’s Anti-trafficking Policies

    • Lucrecia Rubio Grundell
    Pages 119-163

  6. Desecuritising Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation Through a Neo-Abolitionist Approach? The European Women’s Lobby

    • Lucrecia Rubio Grundell
    Pages 165-196

  7. Desecuritising Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation Through a Sex Work Approach? Aradau, Post-anarchism and Whore-Walks

    • Lucrecia Rubio Grundell
    Pages 197-228

  8. Conclusions

    • Lucrecia Rubio Grundell
    Pages 229-239

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 241-246
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Keywords

About this book

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 potentialof 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.  

Reviews

“In this enthralling book, Lucrecia Rubio Grundell provides a much-needed, comprehensive analysis of how trafficking in women for sexual exploitation has come to be securitized by the European Union. Grounded in expert discourse analysis of myriad EU documents and interviews with key actors, she carefully and convincingly traces the evolution and intersection of EU security policy, gender equality policy and approaches to trafficking for sexual exploitation. As such the book fills a noticeable gap in understanding the politics of neo-abolitionism and securitization at European level. Importantly this book ends with a turn to the possibilities of desecuritising the issue, finding inspiration in the transgressive and joyful actions sex workers undertake at a distance from the state.” (Gillian Wylie, Assistant Professor in International Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)

“This compelling book addresses the politics of security and trafficking in women in the EU through a critical, well-documented, and comprehensive analysis that skilfully questions the EU's security and gender equality policies. By unravelling complex dynamics of securitization and feminist politics, the book convincingly argues that trafficking in women for sexual exploitation is securitized at EU level by presenting organised crime, irregular immigration and sex work as threats to the internal security of the EU, and that this securitization has significant consequences for migrant women. A must read for scholars of EU studies, security, and gender and sexuality politics!” (Emanuela Lombardo, Associate Professor in Political Science, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Political Science and Administration, Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Lucrecia Rubio Grundell

About the author

Lucrecia Rubio Grundell is a UNA4CAREER Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. She is doctor in Political and Social Science by the European University Institute and has participated as a postdoctoral researcher in various other Universities, including  l'Université libre de Bruxelles, in Brussels, and the Univerisdad Autónoma de Madrid. Her research interests lie in the intersection between human rights, gender, intersectionality, migration and sex work, on which she has published in journals such as the European Journal of Women's Studies or Social Politics. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Security Meets Gender Equality in the EU

  • Book Subtitle: The Politics of Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation

  • Authors: Lucrecia Rubio Grundell

  • Series Title: Gender and Politics

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12209-5

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-12208-8Published: 10 December 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-12211-8Published: 10 December 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-12209-5Published: 09 December 2022

  • Series ISSN: 2662-5814

  • Series E-ISSN: 2662-5822

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXI, 246

  • Number of Illustrations: 5 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Politics and Gender, European Politics, International Security Studies

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