Using Sex Worker Feminisms in Practice to Promote a Peer-Based Methodology; Exploring Personal and Professional Identities in a Research Alliance Centring Sex Worker Lived Experience

This chapter explores peer-based research and the construction of knowledge by and about sex workers. Drawing on a study into the everyday experiences of sex workers in South Australia we explore sex work opposition in the scholarly community and examine the traditions in which sex work research has been grounded (medico-scientific). We highlight the importance of the asking of ethical and peer-based research questions within a feminist and identity-conscious approach. An autoethnographic account highlights the importance of insider research from Roxana’s sex worker feminist perspective. The debate between the authors from different positions inside and outside of the academy asserts that feminist scholarship should and can support sex workers to be the centre of research about sex workers’ lives.