“Sex Worker Rights are Human Rights”: Illustrating Solidaristic Normative Theory

• In Event: Human Rights on and at the Margins

Abstract

I argue that a solidaristic approach to theory building is needed to address practices and policies that are normatively entrenched despite their being known to cause, exacerbate, or contribute to the risk of wide-spread harms. The motivation is not just to ensure that scholarly research is kept relevant. Rather it is to ensure that research serves the ends of justice as identified and articulated by people and groups who are victims of harms and who are perpetually marginalized or excluded from the decision-making processes that result in these harms. Solidaristic normative theory calls not only for research that is participant-centered or community-focused; it also requires that researchers take a side in struggles for justice in solidarity with the oppressed. With reference to the struggles of major sex worker rights organizations in Canada and the United States to address the harms associated with criminalization, I develop a justification for this approach, highlight important methodological steps, and provide an illustration of what it looks like in practice.

Author

• Genevieve Fuji Johnson, Simon Fraser University