Stories about sex trafficking in Greece : A productive power play

Sammanfattning: The theme of this thesis regards power manifestations in sex trafficking in Greece, through the context of a particular women’s NGO situated in Athens, Greece. The stories that are analysed here are in one way or the other drawn from that NGO context, specifically: the story of the president of the NGO, the story of an activist in that NGO and the story of a woman who has been sex trafficked. What this thesis explores, under a poststructuralist road, influenced by a genealogical approach and inspired by Foucault’s notions of power, is how power can be productive in sex trafficking and the relevant anti-sex trafficking activism. Additionally, using intersectionality as an analytical tool, it explores which social markers are part of that productive play. Situated in crisis Greece, where several issues/problems are intensified, entangled, spread and spilled over in several areas, I find that there is relevance in research concerning how power, in the respective context, can work in productive ways. What is shown through the stories are several contradictions regarding conceptualizations of the role of the police, law, justice, and their relation with rights, religion, ethnicity, race, sex and gender. I treat these contradictions as key illustrators of the productive power play, visualized as a network that entangles different elements and draws its power through their relations. Productive power is seen through corrupt police officers; the accusation of the president of the NGO; through subjects of law, religion and debt; through gender performances; through prolific captivity and so on. What is shown is that the manifestations of power through these stories vary according to the context, but the productive element of power is their joint effect.