Nightclub e prostituzione. Tra conservazione e sperimentazione culturale

Abstract

The subject of my study is female prostitution in nightclubs. Based on the results of an ethnographic research that I conducted in Italy, I describe the phenomenon highlighting certain aspects: roles and organizational structures, relational dynamics, emotional labor, prostitute/client interactions, communication codes, gender differences. The main findings of my research are: a) there are specific subcultures within the phenomenon of prostitution; b) the subculture of prostitution has important connections and elements of integration into the dominant culture; c) nightclubs are heterotopias (Foucault) that, according to the time and the culture, become places of cultural innovation and experimentation or, on the opposite, places of conservation and reaction to the emancipation of women. The picture that emerges is a complex and varied phenomenon which quickly transforms and adapts itself to market needs maintaining, however, a clear cultural horizon of reference.