Geoforum
Volume 93, 2018, Pages 22-31

Anti-slavery as development: A global politics of rescue (Article)

McGrath S.* , Watson S.
  • a Durham University, Department of Geography, Lower Mountjoy, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK; Flowminder-WorldPop, University of Southampton, Department of Geography & Environment, Cumberland House, Grosvenor Square, Southampton, SO15 2BG, UK
  • b Durham University, Department of Geography, Lower Mountjoy, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK; Flowminder-WorldPop, University of Southampton, Department of Geography & Environment, Cumberland House, Grosvenor Square, Southampton, SO15 2BG, UK

Abstract

Trafficking, forced labour and ‘slavery’ (TFLS) have become a central cause for our time, but anti-TFLS efforts have also come under forceful criticism. Amidst these ongoing debates, we observe that TFLS is currently being reframed as a problem of and for development. We consider the implications of this reframing by first reviewing the tangled history of abolitionism, colonialism and development, linking this to critical understandings of development more broadly. We then utilise Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to study the methodological assumptions and discursive framing of (anti-)TFLS in two paradigmatic texts. In doing so, we trace an important discursive shift – to anti-TFLS as development – in the moment it unfolds. Troubling the narrative of anti-TFLS as development, we conclude that while it promises to amend the criminal justice approach, it nevertheless perpetuates a global politics of rescue. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Author Keywords

Forced labour critical discourse analysis anti-trafficking Development geography Human trafficking modern slavery

Index Keywords

slavery regional politics human rights trafficking interdisciplinary approach labor
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85046354946&doi=10.1016%2fj.geoforum.2018.04.013&partnerID=40&md5=83385e30e755336e0a19b392384d75cb
DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.04.013
ISSN: 00167185
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English