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Community Goes German: The Displacement of the Sex Trade in the Name of a Neoliberal Concept

The article asks how local prostitution regimes are reshaped in the process of urban neoliberalization. Based on a media analysis and interviews with Hamburg sex workers and regulatory stakeholders such as police, pimps, politicians, social workers, residents, and business owner associations, it shows how the policing of inner-city neighborhoods in the process of image upgrading relies on self-regulatory mechanisms in the sex industry. Policing practices vary not only according to the form of prostitution, but also neighborhood image. Although prostitution that caters to tourists (“curiosity”), including their tolerated “private security,” becomes part of tourism gentrification strategies, drug prostitution and street prostitution by Eastern Europeans face intensified controls that are accompanied by exclusionary discourses.

urban neoliberalization, prostitution, tourism gentrification

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 38, Nos. 1-2 (2011-12): 48-72.