Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the results of an empirical research on sex workers' narrations, focusing on their «voluntary», not forced, prostitution experience. Firstly, the article introduces the main research contributions to the theme of sex as labor, which suggest analyzing the consensual selling of sexual services as a work activity. It then describes in detail the procedure of collecting and analyzing the data. Different representations, types of working practices, and symbolic strategies shared within a professional community are illustrated. Like all working activities, in fact, sex work is shaped by representations and shared meanings, in this case related to sexuality and the selling of sex, as well as comprising work performance, social rules, reproduction processes and transmission of explicit and tacit knowledge.