Prostitution and The “Law-In-Action” – A Study Of Public Administration In Germany, Poland and Czech Republic

The talk presents the results of a qualitative-empirical research project on public administration of prostitution in Germany, Poland and Czech Republic. Therein administrative practices of both governmental institutions and civil society organizations (e.g. police force; public order, public health and tax authorities as well as social work) will be described and analysed. Using semi-structured expert interviews with organisational frontline-actors governance of prostitution is approached and investigated from a bottom-up perspective. Germany with the Regulation model on the one hand and Poland and Czech Republic with the Abolitionism type on the other hand follow different laws and policies regarding prostitution. However, concerning their “law-in-action” the role of social actors` professional habitus formations revealed to be highly significant. Moreover, it can be shown how executives`patterns of perception, thought and action have a crucial impact on legal changes and its implementation; given the circumstances the study took place after an explicit legal and political paradigm shift of governing prostitution in Germany. Based on case reconstructions and contrastive comparisons a theoretical model on prostitution governance has been developed. It enfolds the conceptualization of administrative actors` professional habitus consisting of three general dimensions: their definition of subject, definition of self and definition of environment. Furthermore, empirically emerged challenges and ambivalences of governing prostitution in terms of an everyday practice attempt to explain the relevance of professional habitus formations affecting “law-in-action”.