Samenvatting

Many scholars interpreted the lifting of the ban on brothels in 2000 (often called the legalization of prostitution) in The Netherlands, as a sign that selling sex was no longer deemed morally objectionable. Governing prostitution thus became primarily a technical matter of government. A task that, for a large part, was delegated to municipalities. However, nearly two decades later, the debate surrounding prostitution (policy) is still characterized by its moral tone of voice, and we lack insight into the strategies and techniques deployed by local governments. This raises two important questions. First, what actually happens in legalized local prostitution markets? Extant research, focusses too much on (changes in) national policy, and too little on what key actors (such as municipalities) are actually doing in local prostitution markets. Second, what is the role of moral aspects? When local actors are studied, insufficient attention is paid to the influence of moral issues. My PhD research addresses these two questions, by looking at the relationship between moral beliefs surrounding prostitution and the way in which local governments attempt to stabilize or change the modus operandi of a local prostitution market. It develops a theoretical framework combining field theory and Foucauldian governmentality concepts, and tries to shed light on the broader theme of the relation between morality and governing in late modern times.