My Account Wish List
Advanced Search
Print - Close Window
www.greenwood.com/catalog/AB566X.aspx
All Greenwood Products
Working at the Bar Sex Work and Health Communication in Thailand
(Click to Enlarge)
This book is not currently available for purchase Online. Please call 1-800-225-5800 to backorder.
Thomas M. Steinfatt
Book Code: AB566X
ISBN: 1-56750-566-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-56750-566-5
448 pages, charts,tables
Ablex Publishing
Publication: 1/30/2002
List Price: $115.00 (UK Sterling Price: £65.00)
Availability: Out of stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Paperback Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • This book provides a comprehensive study on bar work and bar workers and helps to demystify misleading assumptions on sex work and sex workers in Thailand....This book is part of series of Civic Discourse for the Third Millennium with Michael H. Prosser as the series editor. Readers can hope that other works in the series are as revealing as this one.
    —Journal of Third World Studies     Spring 2004
Description: Commercial sex is the occupation of a significant portion of the women of the world, providing economic support for millions of people and their families. Working at the Bar is the first-ever, long-term, longitudinal, in-depth study of a large sex work industry--and Thailand, the most prominent nation in the rapidly growing sex tourism industry, makes for an excellent case study. While previous works have provided brief glimpses of one group of workers studied from a particular point of view, author Thomas Steinfatt examines considerations of health, behavior, economics, morality, religion, and worker safety. The result of data gathered from thousands of workers and customers in Thailand over a period of twelve years, Working at the Bar covers all aspects of an industry that, although it does not conform to various Western ideals, is nevertheless enormously significant. Among the most provocative of Steinfatt's arguments is that sex work is not itself immoral, and that far from being the exploitation industry we might imagine, sex work in Thailand is beneficial to everyone involved--especially given that education in this nation has proven not to be a viable alternative. Providing an opportunity for economic progress unavailable through other means, and providing working conditions far safer than those of the average Thai factory, sex work is ripe for a study that explores all aspects and perceptions associated with it. Working at the Bar is that long overdue study.
Table of Contents:
  • On Studying Sex Work
  • Numbers and Types of Workers and Workplaces
  • Routes to Barwork
  • Reasons for Not Working
  • Moral and Religious Concerns
  • Barworker Demographics
  • Employment Statistics
  • Partner Selection and Negotiations
  • AIDS in Thailand
  • Condom Use and Health Communication in Foreign Oriented Bars
  • Hopes, Dreams, and the Future
  • Management, Owners, and Support Staff
  • Customer Motivation
  • Policy on Sex Work
  • Appendix: Data Collection Methodology
  • Glossary
  • References
  • Index
LC Card Number: 2001046316
LCC Class: HQ242
Dewey Class: 331
All rights reserved. Copyright © 1999-2008 Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
88 Post Road West, Westport CT 06881, (203) 226-3571