Managing Conflict: An Examination of Three-Way Alliances in Canadian Escort and Massage Businesses

• In Event: Third-Party Sex Work and Pimps in the Age of Anti-Trafficking

Abstract

Weitzer (2005) argues that sex work research must investigate all three sides of the sex work employment triangle: workers, clients, and managers; he notes, however, that the third group, managers, is the least often studied. This study addresses this lacuna with interviews collected from a 2013 sample of 43 managers of escort agency and massage parlour businesses in five Canadian cities. Consistent with Weitzer’s argument, the managers were interviewed as part of larger study that included people who sell and who purchase sexual services. The analysis presented here examines managers’ experiences with conflict/aggression in the workplace. The findings make a novel contribution to the sociology of service work literature; they are also important in the context of recent legal changes in Canada where recent legislation made illegal commercial sex enterprises and third-party material benefit within them.

Author

• Lauren Casey, University of Victoria