Human Trafficking and Online Networks: Policy, Analysis, and Ignorance

Mendel, Jonathan; Sharapov, Kiril

Abstract

Dominant anti-trafficking policy discourses represent trafficking as an issue of crime, “illegal” migration, victimhood and humanitarianism. Such a narrow focus is not an adequate response to the interplay between technology, trafficking and anti-trafficking. This article explores different levels of analysis and the interplay between human trafficking and technology. We argue for a shift from policy discourses with a very limited focus on crime and victimisation to more systemic understandings of trafficking and more robust micro-analyses of trafficking and everyday life. The article calls for an agnotological understanding of policy responses to trafficking and technology: these depend upon the production of ignorance. We critique limitations in policy understandings of trafficking-related aspects of online spaces, and argue for better engagement with online networks. We conclude that there is a need to move beyond a focus on “new” technology and exceptionalist claims about “modern slavery” towards greater attention to everyday exploitation within neoliberalism.

Citation

Mendel, J., & Sharapov, K. (2016). Human Trafficking and Online Networks: Policy, Analysis, and Ignorance. Antipode, 48(3), 665-684. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12213

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 10, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Jan 6, 2016
• Publication Date: May 10, 2016
• Deposit Date: Apr 26, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 7, 2018
• Journal: Antipode
• Print ISSN: 0066-4812
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 665-684
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12213
• Keywords: agnotology; ignorance; internet; networks; neoliberalism; technology; trafficking in human beings
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/833920
• Contract Date: May 3, 2017