Rethinking trafficking in women

by Claudia Aradau

What should be done about trafficking in women? Rethinking Trafficking in Women argues that the question to be asked is, 'What cannot be done about trafficking in women?' Exploring the complex relationship between security, subjectivity and politics, Aradau argues that security practices reproduce a politics of unfreedom and inequality. Politics out of security, on the contrary, is formulated around universality, equality and freedom. In the situation of trafficking, the equality and universality of work disrupt the specification of difference and of particularized subjectivity upon which security practices rely. Aradau emphasizes that the reduction of politics to security limits struggles for equality and freedom and entrenches divisions and boundaries in the world.