Health work, female sex workers and HIV/AIDS: Global and local dimensions of stigma and deviance as barriers to effective interventions

This paper addresses the near global attribution of stigma and deviance to female sex workers, and the salience of this attribution for health interventions in HIV/AIDS. A conceptual frame is developed as a guide to comparative sociological study in this area, and the importance of explanation at the level of social structure emphasized. After a general review of the empirical literature, more sustained attention is paid to specific aspects of female sex work in three contexts or figurations, the cities of London, Bangkok and Kolkarta. It is argued that norms of shame and blame and the labelling process with which they are bound up always arise within a structure nexus. We emphasis, in particular, the figuration-specific tensions between the global and the local, system and lifeworld and, the relationship between structure, agency and culture. The article concludes with a discussion of attempts to empower female sex workers and with a series of five orienting themes comprising a research programme for the future.