Power, identity and precarity: Sex workers’ “lived experience” of violence and social injustice in Bangladesh

Abstract

This article applies an anthropological perspective of violence to critique and interrogate the concept of social justice. It analyses Bangladeshi sex workers’ “lived experience” of symbolic and structural violence in different social worlds—the community and family, and brothels—as a new framework for understanding social injustice. We find that violence and injustice exist in a complex web of power, identity, social structures and culture, shaped by power relations, discriminating social structures, and oppressive cultural norms which push the sex workers into the cycles of violence. These forms of violence impede an individual's capabilities, life chances and dignity, the factors that determine one's experience of social justice. From a social policy perspective, our study suggests that social justice to sex workers concerns, first and foremost, with addressing their needs for safety and security, thus, enabling them to experience equity, dignity, protection and human rights.