Introduction
Challenging the binary construction of prostitution as work or violence, in this article we adopt a perspective to the under-researched phenomenon that is attentive to the agency of sex ...workers. The Introduction theorizes sex work as a continuum of professional and organizational practices, and discusses prostitution frameworks and markets in two post-socialist EU member states, Slovenia and Croatia. The main aim was to explore how organizational patterns of sex work develop in the two countries and what their specific features and varieties are according to the different policy systems.
Methods
Empirical analysis that is based on fifteen qualitative interviews (conducted in 2017) with sex workers in Slovenia and Croatia.
Results
Analysis show that decriminalization policy context is more conducive to professionalization of sex work which can positively impact security and job satisfaction, while the criminalization framework facilitates violence and suppresses the empowerment of sex workers.
Conclusion
It is argued that “governing through crime” that still persists, especially in Croatia, needs to develop alternatives such as adopting the principle of “collaborative governance” where policy decisions are informed by sex workers.
Social-policy implications
Analysis show that decriminalization has enabled teamwork when sex workers interconnect as a business strategy, while the criminalization framework functions to limit the agency of sex workers. While stigmatization and marginalization of sex workers largely persists in both countries, the decriminalization in Slovenia has enabled teamwork when sex workers interconnect as a business strategy.
This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discussions on authoritarian populism and the media, from the lens of the political economy of ownership. In contrast to studies that consider the link ...between media and authoritarian populism by focusing on the discursive structures of populist communication, this study analyses changes in the structure of news media ownership in four European countries that have been subject to authoritarian populism. By employing social network analysis, a methodology rarely used in media ownership research, we reveal how news media ownership concentration as well as changes in ownership structures have provided favorable conditions for the rise and endurance of authoritarian populism. Our study covers ownership developments during the period 2000 to 2020, in Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, and Turkey where authoritarian populist tendencies have been evident, albeit to varying degrees. Conclusions are drawn to illustrate how authoritarian populist actors in the sample countries not only capitalize on prevailing news media ownership structures, but also proactively intervene in ownership relations in order to increase influence over the diffusion of information.
The argument for this article rests on exploring the significance of emotions and emotion-related forms of journalism that have historically been dismissed as improper reporting and flawed ...journalism. So far the emerging research on emotionality in the media, marking the so-called "affective turn" in communications, has mostly analysed emotional media performance in relation to its influences on the public. This article complements the existing research by exploring journalists' own views and narrations on emotions with the aim of unravelling emotionality as a vital emerging journalistic practice in a hybrid media environment. Results of semi-structured interviews with journalists in Slovenia, where the media developed at the cross-roads of fierce commercialization and political instrumentalization, show how they craft emotionality as professional journalistic conduct, articulating emotions as "special effects" with potential for motivation and engagement, but also revealing criticism in using emotions when their only purpose is to boost a commercial interest, thus feeding the attention economy model of media development.
Approaching populism at the intersection of ideology and discourse, in this article we analyse how politicians in Slovenia responded to migration during and after the 'refugee crisis' (2015-2019). ...Based on a frame analysis of parliamentary debates that addressed migration, we explore differences and similarities in the speeches of different politicians and identify 'populist frames' that reveal how various actors speak about migration. We argue that distinct features of populist communication extend from exclusionary, ethnonationalistic populist frames to inclusionary solidary discourses, reflecting the transversal political logic of populism that fits the ideological maps of political actors.
Many “third country” migrants are recruited to the EU for unskilled labour, filling in positions that are unattractive to the “domestic” workforce. Current integration policies declare integration as ...a two-way process that should equalise migrants’ opportunities with those of the “nationals”. However, integration often appears blind to addressing specific migrant positions, in particular migrants as precarious and low-paid workers. This article discusses in a comparative perspective the precarious positions of migrants from “third countries” in six EU member states – Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia. The article first addresses most recent data on migrant populations and discusses the sectors of migrant work. The assumption is that current migration and integration policies are to a large extent devoid of the migrants’ own perceptions and needs. It is therefore pivotal for the presented argument to provide visibility of migrants and discuss their own living and working experiences. Considering migrants as “partners in communication”, the article analyses interviews and focus groups engaging 150 migrants that were conducted in the six countries in 2009. Attention is devoted to discussing the themes that emerge in migrant narratives, analysing the cross-country similarities and differences in the economies that are largely sustained by a migrant workforce. By exploring the precarious labour market experiences of migrants, the article questions the validity of the concept of integration that remains an important objective of current EU migration regimes.
This article discusses migrants’ experiences of European migration-labour. It shows how precariousness is materialized in migrants’ work and lives. I show how the subordination of migrants to the ...demands of the (global) market shapes the work of ‘third country migrants’ as precarious in European economies. Specific migration policies as well as labour processes and their regulation construct migrants as ‘wasted precariat’, in line with Bauman’s (2004) notion of ‘wasted humans’. This process occurs at the intersection of migrant workers’ immigration status, the governance of immigration and labour relations as well as features of the industries that employ migrant workers.
Studies on mediatization have pointed to the "collateralism" of media and politics, a model that emphasizes reciprocal media-politics interactions. This article discusses how various political ...parties, and in particular right-wing populist parties in the post-socialist Slovenian context, use communication tools on the Internet; to what extent they enable participatory communication; and how they open up to forms of "media populism." In what ways do right-wing populist parties make use of social media as a megaphone for their positions, to promote their charismatic leaders, to disseminate their "othering" ideologies, and to spread the "politics of fear"? The analysis enables us to detect media populism across the political spectrum, and in particular to theorize contemporary features of right-wing media populism.
Pričujoča številka Družboslovnih razprav (DR) se z različnih gledišč ukvarja z analizami
vstaj v Sloveniji v obdobju 2012—2013, ki so s pričetkom v Mariboru jeseni 2012 ob
množični udeležbi potekale ...v številnih mestih po Sloveniji, združevale pa so protestnice in protestnike, ki so izražali nezadovoljstvo z lokalnimi in nacionalnimi oblastmi ter koruptivnostjo političnih in gospodarskih elit, odgovornih za slabo stanje in odnose v državi ter širše. Najbolj množični protesti v Sloveniji po letu 1991 so v lokalnih slovenskih prostorih na ulicah združili izjemno raznolikost vstajniških skupin, iniciativ, gibanj, posameznic in posameznikov v mnoštvo glasov, ki je odločno odgovorilo na globalno krizo neoliberalizma, predvsem na vsiljene varčevalne ukrepe in splošno krizo predstavniškega političnega sistema.
This book engages with migrant work in globalizing economies, both in the EU and worldwide, to explore the relationships between work and the complexity of migrant belonging in transnational spaces. ...Migrant experiences related to global labour market structures are understood in the context of transnational and national policy frames that largely determine the production of migrant work as poorly paid, precarious, and accompanied by low status and inadequate social protection. Special foci in.
PDF
