Laura Jarvis King

Research Associate

Laura has a strong academic interest in issues around time, work and power, with specific interest in how individuals negotiate these practices in the light of contexts such as gender, sexuality and the growing use of digital technologies.

These themes came together for her PhD where she examined the relationships between indoor sex workers and clients, which are developed and shaped through online platforms. Central to these relationships is the practice of time and how units of time are sold. In working together, sex workers and clients use experiences of time to experience familiarity and to produce a safe and time-limited experience.

Online platforms

Her research in this area contributes to a reframing of the power relationships between sex workers and clients, but also highlights the increasing role of online platforms in shaping these relationships.

As Laura explains: "My research interests stem from time spent volunteering with a sex work support project, where service users would often complain about clients turning up late or requesting extra time. I volunteered while researching the use of visual methods in the sex industry and assisting on a research project with my then Masters and PhD supervisor on the quality of internet sex work."

"This project then motivated me to look further into the industry for my PhD. In particular, in recent years the rise of online platforms has had a huge impact on the sector, and this has had major consequences for women working in the industry. Indeed, at the height of the pandemic sex workers were obviously unable to see clients in person so the online industry just grew even more."

Regulation

She adds that the lack of regulation online remains a major issue. "There is a lot of work to be done in terms of regulating online platforms and this will continue to be a focus of research activity in the years ahead."

As part of this debate Laura feels that her research and that of others has an important role to play. "One of the outcomes of my research so far has been to contribute to a wider understanding of what can be quite a complex relationship between sex workers and clients. In particular there is still a widespread stigma and sense of immorality and exploitation associated with the industry, when in fact a lot of women are in control of what they are doing and can choose how they want to specifically work within the sector. Digital platforms contribute to that level of control and autonomy, but the owners of those platforms also hold a level of control and responsibility that they don't necessarily acknowledge."

Laura says that this is relevant to all forms of work organised through online platforms, and she is interested in exploring, more generally, how workers and consumers practice and experience their relationships, as mediated through online platforms.

Methodology

Laura is now using the qualitative and visual longitudinal methodologies she used for her PhD as part of her work with WEI colleagues for a major new £6.5m research centre into the world of work funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit) is exploring how new digital technologies are profoundly reshaping the world of work and will produce new evidence for policy makers, businesses, and unions on effective adoption of digital technology, the future of skills requirements and productivity.

Adds Laura: "I am currently researching how professional workers in the legal and IT sectors practice and experience work in the context of the increasing use of digital technologies. We're interested in how digital technologies are used to organise work and how they impact experiences of working time, career trajectories and relationships at work."

"The longitudinal methods I used during my PhD have been adapted to conduct the research digitally, which was a necessity because of pandemic restrictions. But it has also offered a great experience of conducting research online. The research process has been interesting because we're experiencing digital technology alongside the participants. Indeed there is something telling, but possibly also ironic, about conducting research about digital technologies using digital technology."