Sophie Days is an Anthropologist and the founder of Praed Street Project, a referral and support centre for sex workers within London. She began the research for her anthropological account of selling sex within London in 1986 which continued for a period of over 15 years. During this time, there was huge change within the sex industry as well as ‘sociopolitical-epidemiological changes’. This therefore explains why she choses to approach sex work from an almost political angle, describing it as ‘a key phenomenon of industrial capitalism’. What makes Days ethnography stand out from other works on sex work is that she does not take a stance on the debate as to wether selling sex is exploitative or if it is simply ‘just work’, instead, it is her aim to explore how the individual women she has chosen to follow, live and manage to juggle their private and public life, as sex workers are so often described as ‘public’ or ‘common’ women due to the fact sex is seen as belonging to the ‘private’ sphere, a part of loving relationships, and not to be sold. …show more content…
And it is due to this widespread disapproval of the profession that she also explores how sex workers manage to ‘fit in’ to society. As sex workers overstep the boundaries of ‘public’ and ‘private’ the book is almost divided into two halves in which Day discusses the sex workers’ experiences of these two separate