Elizabeth Bernstein is professor of women's, gender, and sexuality studies and of sociology at Barnard College, Columbia University, and the author of Temporarily Yours: Intimacy, Authenticity, and the Commerce of Sex, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
"Brokered Subjects...presents groundbreaking insights from
Bernstein's lengthy and wide-ranging ethnographic enquiry into the
discur-sive construction of 'trafficking, ' research that included
in-depth interviews with antitrafficking activists and politicians,
participant observation at antitrafficking events and policy
meetings, 'rescue projects, ' and (with Elena Shih) an
antitrafficking 'reality tour' in Thailand. Data from this research,
alongside careful attention to the extant literature on
antitrafficking and critical engagement with contemporary social
theory, allow Bernstein to complicate and advance existing
critiques. . . . The powerful and thought-provoking sociological
analysis advanced in Brokered Subjects is unlikely to become
obsolete any time soon."--Julia O'Connell Davidson "American
Journal of Sociology"
"This [is a] fascinating, readable and compelling book by one of
the leading theorists of sexual politics today. Brokered Subjects
is thoroughly researched, thoughtfully argued, and should be read
by anyone who fashions themselves invested in or critical of
anti-trafficking. This is an invaluable study and one that will be
guiding critical inquiry for many years to come. Indeed, what we
are left with after reading Bernstein's book is the profound
question of what remains when 'human trafficking' is no longer the
framework through which freedom is brokered in late capitalism,"--
"Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books"
"Brokered Subjects reveals how central questions of sexuality and
gender are to new forms of neoliberal governance and racial power
in national and transnational politics. Bernstein reveals why
discourses of anti-trafficking campaigns have become ubiquitous
across left- and right-wing politics. She shows with powerful
ethnographic research and evidence how anti-trafficking brings
together a range of political actors who have the power to define
sexuality, morality, and what women--especially poor ones--need to
do with their bodies. This is important reading for activists,
policy makers, NGOs, and researchers."-- "Inderpal Grewal, Yale
University"
"My enthusiasm for this thoughtful and masterful ethnographic
analysis of trafficking discourse is unqualified. Bernstein offers
a provocative challenge in tracing the work that decades of
anti-trafficking interventions have been doing--from facilitating a
billion-dollar industry of good intentions reinforced by a white
savior industrial complex, to reinforcing sexual, cultural, and
racial stereotypes, as well as emboldening a new sexual politics
that has securitized rather than enabled the freedom of
disenfranchised constituencies. Brokered Subjects is a bold and
timely book that is bound to compel a rethinking of contemporary
understandings of gender progress and freedom."-- "Ratna Kapur,
Queen Mary University of London"
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