Sex work in the context of sports mega events: Examining the impacts of Rio 2016

Building on our previous work, and combining various disciplinary backgrounds, the aim of this project is to address: a) the spatial regulation of informal sex economies during a sports mega event (SME), b) the normalization of specific sexual identities/practices through these processes, and c) the key challenges this poses for sex-workers.

Research on Olympic cities and those hosting sport mega events has tended to address national identity-making, media representation (often with respect to the narratives of city/nation promoting tourism and investment), and associated landscapes of urban regeneration/gentrification. There has been less academic emphasis on the informal economies that coalesce around such events, with even less of a focus on the relationship between sporting events and urban sexual landscapes. Media speculation often points to heightened demand for sexual services around SMEs (especially in relation to the global trafficking of sex workers). Indeed, these reports are often used to justify policing and other social control measures and rationalise city 'cleansing', displacing sex work from the spaces which become visible to international audiences in the context of a major sporting event. At the same time, event-related construction and road closure can also disrupt established spaces of sex work and street prostitution. In Brazil, and despite the Government actively supporting legalised prostitution, such challenges raise a number of concerns surrounding eviction, loss of community support, loss of worker rights, stigmatization, and the displacement of sexual commerce from the centre to the margins (raising concerns over safety, criminal control, and violence). However, there exists a dearth of relevant scientific data on the sexual landscapes associated with the Olympics or more widely on the impact of large-scale sporting events on vulnerable sex working populations (an omission noted by Deering et al., 2012; Matheson and Finkel, 2014). This project will provide this data by completing the first funded academic study on the impact of the Olympics on sex workers.

Engaging academic and non-academic stakeholders in a collaborative process, the project will hence make an important contribution to understanding the impact of major sporting events on the spaces and practices of sex work. Working with the Observatorio Da Prostituicao (ODP) and NGO Davida in Brazil, data will advance knowledge by exploring how the official promotion of Rio through the Olympics Games is reflected in the construction of new landscapes which might encourage urban gentrification and the removal of sex work from the central city. Building on previous ESRC sponsored research by the applicants, the project will be multi-method, involving content analysis of documentation and media, ethnographic methods including interviews with key stakeholders (clients, sex workers, venue managers, security personnel, local support groups, police, and NGO Davida [a sex workers rights group]). Whilst all studies of sex work come with attendant risk, these are mitigated in this project by drawing on existing collaborations with the ODP that demonstrate the study is feasible and safe, and by drawing on interdisciplinary expertise across the project team.

The project will influence practice, policy and research by producing empirical data documenting the impact of a sporting mega event on sex-working populations. Theoretically, it will contribute to debates surrounding the nature of urban change in a global era, and specifically the links between 'events-led urbanism' and socio-spatial exclusion. Specific outcomes will include localised solutions to key challenges faced by sex workers as well as wider global influence with respect to future research, theorising and policy (e.g. IOC, events organising committees, the Institute for Human Rights and Business). The research will hence be of international significance and importance.

Who will benefit from this research?
Policy Makers: The project will produce new knowledge and evidence about informal sex economies and landscapes related to hosting a SME and with respect to event-led urbanism. This has implications for policy formation in respect to sex work, inclusive regeneration and cohesive communities, human rights and workers rights. In particular, building on established collaborations, charities such as Amnesty International, and global sport governing bodies such as the IOC, and local agencies such as the Public State Archive of Rio De Janiero (Arquivo Público do Estado do Rio de Janeiro), will benefit.

Local Organizing Committees for SMEs: There are numerous SMEs held at various cycles (e.g. FIFA World Cup every four years; Olympics every two years). Each of these, in conjunction with an international governing body (e.g. IOC) are organised by a local committee (host) whom deliver the Games relational to contractual obligations (e.g. regeneration, legacy, increase in physical activity, inclusivity) related to bid documentation. Despite contextual differences, local host organising committees tend to use SMEs as catalysts for urban renewal, promotion of a destination for tourism, and for attracting inward investment. Each will need to plan and produce policy related to informal sex economies and put into practice, in conjunction with charities, support workers, police, local councils and officials, strategies related to policing sex work, protecting human and worker rights, and, legal frameworks regrading trafficking/child prostitution.

NGOs: There are a number of NGOs, both local and international in scope, that work with local, national and international forms of government that have established records in the sex-related industries. In Rio, NGO Davida and the ODP (a project collaborator), and in Brazil more generally (the Brazilian Interdisciplinary Association of Aids and the Brazilian network of Prostitutes), will benefit; the research bridges theory/practice in order to meet the diverse needs (support where necessary) of those involved in informal sex economies. Given the integrated nature of the approach, policy/practice can be easily adapted to future host cities.

General Public: The project will impact upon the health, security and safety of members of the general public, initially in Brazil and then adapted to different policy contexts. It will ensure policy frameworks oriented towards the needs, protection, and inclusivity of those who are involved in, who regulate and who frequent informal sex economies.

How will they benefit from the research?
The research will enable policy makers/planners internationally to develop frameworks that a) are evidence based in the development of debates/frameworks through which to consider debates around sex work, sexual landscapes of cities relational to hosting an SME, b) promote inclusivity in event-led urban regeneration, c) strategically put policy into practice in conjunction with a range of agencies so as to support the rights of sex workers and regulate/police practices of a criminal nature (dependent on context) during mega-event planning and construction, d) at a more local level ensure the support and protection of workers rights, sexual health and social support structures, and e) allows future host cities to adequately consider and operationalize policies related to informal sexual economies and SME. There exists scant evidence of 'cleansing' during planning stages (which brings associated human rights/health concerns) and there are exacerbated concerns over sexual health during SMEs; yet there exists no systematic, reliable evidence on which to base policy/practice. As such, hosts re-invent the wheel at each event, there is scant guidance or support. This research seeks to address these problems through bridging the theory/practice/policy gap; a timely contribution given recent scrutiny of sex work by Amnesty International.