Étudier la prostitution au sein de l’association Cabiria. Retour réflexif sur une expérience de recherche

Abstract

The article focuses on the conditions which made possible various fieldwork research projects in the 1990s, dealing both with the world of prostitution and with volunteer prevention against AIDS among prostitutes. These research projects were conducted within the Cabiria association in Lyon, in a partnership which implied the sociologist’s support for prevention methods which were then being challenged. The conditions of the creation but also of the later weakening of this partnership are examined, with a stress on what they owe to the differences in rationales and objectives distinguishing sociological analysis from volunteer work.

Keywords

• prostitution
• AIDS prevention
• ethnography
• reflexivity
• social uses of sociology