Trafficking in Human Beings: Made and Cut to Measure? Anti-trafficking Docufictions and the Production of Anti-trafficking Truths

Sharapov, Kiril; Mendel, Jonathan

Abstract

This paper responds to Gozdziak's (2015: 30) call to explore how the knowledge that informs public debates about human trafficking is generated. Media imagery and narratives play a significant role in constructing both knowledge and ignorance. This paper reflects on the construction of such knowledge by analysing how anti-trafficking docufiction videos from the Unchosen competition dramatize trafficking. We draw on Goffman's (1974) work on frames to analyse how these videos present a simplified interpretation of reality, where certain constructed aspects of trafficking and exploitation are represented by video-makers as illustrating the general. In doing so, we highlight how anti-trafficking docufictions help efface everyday exploitation. The paper contributes both to the empirical research on the construction of knowledge about trafficking, and to critical conceptual work on (anti)trafficking, exploitation and ignorance. It is part of a broader project of challenging exceptionalising and individualising representations of human trafficking – aiming to engage better with the everyday exploitation.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 30, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Sep 12, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018-12
• Deposit Date: Jun 4, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 5, 2018
• Journal: Cultural Sociology
• Print ISSN: 1749-9755
• Electronic ISSN: 1749-9763
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 540-560
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975518788657
• Keywords: Agnotology; docufictions; frames; ignorance; media; public opinion; trafficking in human beings; exploitation
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1196565
• Contract Date: Jun 4, 2018