This article addresses the construction of policies on the sex trade through an analysis of interviews with key policy officials in Finland. It focuses on how the links between gender, geopolitics, and economic imperatives reflect policies that are constantly (re)constructed through discourses by policy officials. The central research questions concern what the main discourses on the sex trade are in Finland among the professional elite, and how these discourses relate to policies and practice. Data from semistructured interviews with 30 members of the Finnish professional elite (18 men, 16 women) were examined using discourse analysis. Three metadiscourses and several mesodiscourses and microdiscourses were identified; these are discussed in terms of the covert or overt reference to gender in the interviewees' talk and in terms of revealing personal experiences with the sex trade. This article considers the implications of these developments and attitudes for policies and practices. © 2009 Policy Studies Organization.

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Finland policy development prostitution social policy policy analysis