St Antony's International Review (STAIR) is a peer-reviewed,
academic journal established by graduate members of St Antony's College at the University of Oxford. It is published
bi-annually and features articles on international affairs.
The Politics of Human Trafficking
Call for
Papers
Abstracts due August 30, 2007 Papers due December 30,
2007
In the year of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave
trade, the global trade in human beings is back on the policy agenda. This
illegal trade is no longer restricted to a singular westward flow across the
Atlantic, but now occurs in such diverse regions as South Asia and the Middle
East. International crime control, migration agencies and the media show
great concern over the upward trend in human trafficking based on the
new opportunities created by increasing global mobility. But, despite this
growing alarm, there remains insufficient serious scholarship addressing
human trafficking. There is no consensus as to the precise meaning of the
term, as its elements of victimhood and agency remain obscure, whilst
economic analysis of human trafficking, and its relationship to the
international labour market remains hazy at best. Similarly, despite the
existence of research on the international abolitionist movement and drug
policies, little comparative analysis exists between forms of
trafficking.
For these reasons, the St Antony s International Review
(STAIR) invites academics, young researchers, and policy experts to submit
abstracts of papers that explore one or more of the following lines of
enquiry for the forthcoming issue on The Politics of Human
Trafficking.
Agency and Victimhood : The popular portrayal of human
trafficking often resembles a Dickensian landscape of suffering and pain,
with voiceless children and powerless women caught in a trap of violence and
exploitation. Whilst this may be true of a number of cases, it is now
frequently asserted that such depictions unfairly obscure the complex web of
coercion and consent that underpins and characterises the diverse processes
of contemporary human trafficking. In many cases the boundaries between
voluntary labour migration and forced exploitation are so thin as to hide
the intricacies of the choices that people actually make. Why do some parents
encourage their children to go and what motivates them to leave? What do men
and women stand to gain from illegally crossing borders and are all at risk
of abuse if they do? Are traffickers inherently evil or do they provide an
unregulated service in an apparently failing economy? Is there room for
agency even in situations of extreme hardship? And if so, why does the
discourse of disempowerment and victimhood so dominate the standard
narrative?
Economics of Trafficking: The impacts of human trafficking
are manifold. Aside from creating human misery, and straining political
systems, the economic impact of human trafficking on national economies can
be enormous. Academics and policymakers highlight the need for greater
research in order to better understand both the relationship between
trafficking and development and that between trafficking and the dynamics of
the international labour market. How should we integrate the supply-side and
the demand-side in our analysis? How can the existence of remittance flows
help us to better understand the processes and motivations of trafficking?
What is the relationship between trafficking and economic migration, and what
role do global social inequalities, freedom of movement and corruption play
in this relationship?
Politics and policy making The fight against
human trafficking has become an increasingly salient political issue for
governments around the world. In spite of widespread agreement on the need
for multilateral cooperation in addressing this problem, its very persistence
highlights the important weaknesses that still remain in the identification
of appropriate countertrafficking policies. How can national legislation
foster a more inclusive approach to trafficking? What are the best methods
for adapting to increased global mobility? What has been the role
of immigration laws and policies and is a victim-centered approach
appropriate? Does international trafficking lead to more internal
trafficking and if so, what role do governments have in dealing with this?
What is the role of non-state actors involved in the fight against
trafficking? How can the monitoring and evaluation of counter-trafficking
policies be improved?
Methodology: Trafficking in International
Affairs Trafficking research is not well integrated with the academic study
of politics and international affairs because of the apparent lack of data,
methods and analytical models. How can trafficking studies draw on existing
research, such as international trade theory, transnationalism and migration
studies, to benefit the discipline and our understanding of both the trade
and its policy responses? What conventional types of sources are available
for analysing illegal trades and are there feasible alternatives, such as
interviews with end-users? Do criminology or anthropology offer useful
alternative methodologies or do they take us too far from the disciplinary
mainstream? And does it make sense to compare human trafficking across
different regions and/or contrast it to other forms of illegal trade in
drugs, diamonds or arms? If so, what can be learnt from such
comparisons?
In conjunction with the general Call for Papers for the
forthcoming issue on 'The Politics of Human Trafficking', STAIR also seeks to
publish book reviews of works that adhere to the advertised theme of the
issue. If you are interested in submitting book reviews related to the theme
'The Politics of Human Trafficking , please contact book.reviews@stairjournal.org
================================================================ To
leave the list, send your request by email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.