Update

We have now received more clarity on the situation with regards to research.

A lot of Europe has closed their borders and so if we were to travel to Amsterdam we would have been quarantined. Our research had to develop further as most organisations in the uk were closing.

we wanted to continue to focus on sex work, however this became increasingly difficult due to a lot of people self isolating, and the increasing risk this would pose to our own health. As well as this, due to there not being schemes such as the red light district that support sex workers, it is extremely difficult to locate or develop a relationship with a street sex worker without causing any negative backlash.

This led us to creating a survey, and circulating it, to discover public opinion surrounding sex workers and the stigma they experience in society. This was including mentioning the managed sex zones in Liverpool, that are also in areas in Leeds, and looking further into the criminalisation of sex workers and if the perceptions of them impacts the stigma and criminal backlash.

In addition to this we are in the process of organising interviews with a contact in Amsterdam that Sara has helped organise, and also trying to set up interviews with Gemma , who works a lot with sex workers and organisations that help them, A lecturer, Laura, from MMU whose specialist research is feminist theory and sex work. Finally Shelley, a visitor to the LJMU who discussed the sex work industry and the difficulties that people face.

I am hoping the this data will be sufficient in discussing the sex work industry and the stigma they face including backlash from society and criminal justice system. However I don’t know if this will be informative enough.

With regards to the reflective aspect of the research I do believe there is a lot to discuss as throughout there has been numerous amounts of difficulties faced and situations that have led us to change our research, specifically with the very small time frame we are faced with.