Informal settlements: Covid-19 and sex workers in Kenya
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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Informal settlements : Covid-19 and sex workers in Kenya. / Hassan, Rahma; Sanders, Teela; Gichuna, Susan; Campbell, Rosie; Mutonyi, Mercy; Mwangi, Peninah.
I: Urban Studies, Bind 60, Nr. 8, 2023, s. 1483–1496.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Informal settlements
T2 - Covid-19 and sex workers in Kenya
AU - Hassan, Rahma
AU - Sanders, Teela
AU - Gichuna, Susan
AU - Campbell, Rosie
AU - Mutonyi, Mercy
AU - Mwangi, Peninah
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © Urban Studies Journal Limited 2021.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - This paper highlights the challenges faced by female sex workers living and working in the urban informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, during the Covid-19 outbreak and the aftermath of the pandemic. Using data collected through phone interviews during the immediate crisis, we document the experiences of urban poor sex workers, illustrating the acute problems they faced, including precarious housing with the reality of eviction and demolition. The paper highlights the ramifications of the Covid-19 crisis for the sex industry and predominantly women working within this informal, illegal economy. Through our empirical data we illustrate how the nature of selling sex has changed for sex workers in this context, increasing risks of violence including police abuses. We argue that examining the Covid-19 crisis through the lens of one the most marginalised populations graphically highlights how the pandemic has and will continue to deepen pre-existing structural urban inequalities and worsen public health outcomes among the urban poor. Sex worker communities are often located at the intersections of structural inequalities of gender, class, race and nation and the socio-spatial fragmentations of how they live make them some of the most vulnerable in society. We close with comments in relation to sexual citizenship, exclusionary state practices and the feminisation of urban poverty.
AB - This paper highlights the challenges faced by female sex workers living and working in the urban informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, during the Covid-19 outbreak and the aftermath of the pandemic. Using data collected through phone interviews during the immediate crisis, we document the experiences of urban poor sex workers, illustrating the acute problems they faced, including precarious housing with the reality of eviction and demolition. The paper highlights the ramifications of the Covid-19 crisis for the sex industry and predominantly women working within this informal, illegal economy. Through our empirical data we illustrate how the nature of selling sex has changed for sex workers in this context, increasing risks of violence including police abuses. We argue that examining the Covid-19 crisis through the lens of one the most marginalised populations graphically highlights how the pandemic has and will continue to deepen pre-existing structural urban inequalities and worsen public health outcomes among the urban poor. Sex worker communities are often located at the intersections of structural inequalities of gender, class, race and nation and the socio-spatial fragmentations of how they live make them some of the most vulnerable in society. We close with comments in relation to sexual citizenship, exclusionary state practices and the feminisation of urban poverty.
KW - gender violence
KW - informal settlements
KW - Nairobi
KW - poverty
KW - sex work
U2 - 10.1177/00420980211044628
DO - 10.1177/00420980211044628
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 37273499
AN - SCOPUS:85116584633
VL - 60
SP - 1483
EP - 1496
JO - Urban Studies
JF - Urban Studies
SN - 0042-0980
IS - 8
ER -
ID: 306902342