Shimei Nour, Lahav-Raz Yeela, Prior Ayelet, Shilo Guy, Peled Einat
Faculty of Social Work, Ashkelon Academic College, Ashkelon, Israel.
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel.
Glob Public Health. 2025 Dec;20(1):2525961. doi: 10.1080/17441692.2025.2525961. Epub 2025 Jul 23.
Research on the sex trade during COVID-19 has documented the intertwined material and emotional hardships faced by individuals in the sex trade. Building on these insights, this article examines how self-care practices functioned as relational and strategic responses to crisis. Drawing on twenty semi-structured interviews conducted in Israel between May and December 2020, findings highlight two intersecting themes: the emotional burden caused by isolation, surveillance, and financial insecurity; and the self-care strategies participants employed to sustain themselves. These included reaching out for support, engaging in mutual aid, returning to work under duress, and setting protective boundaries. Rather than viewing self-care as a personal wellness practice, the article conceptualises it as a situated form of agency shaped by structural neglect. While the data reflect a specific historical moment, the insights they generate speak to broader questions of crisis governance, marginality, and the everyday production of resilience. By centreing the voices and practices of individuals in the sex trade, the article offers a politically attuned understanding of self-care under systemic disruption. This study offers empirical insight into how marginalised individuals navigated crisis conditions, advances a relational understanding of self-care shaped by systemic forces, and suggests the policy relevance of peer-informed, community-based approaches.
关于新冠疫情期间性交易的研究记录了性交易从业者所面临的物质与情感交织的困境。基于这些见解，本文探讨了自我关怀实践如何作为对危机的关系性和策略性应对发挥作用。通过对2020年5月至12月在以色列进行的20次半结构化访谈，研究结果突出了两个相互交织的主题：隔离、监视和经济不安全所造成的情感负担；以及参与者用以维持自身的自我关怀策略。这些策略包括寻求支持、参与互助、在压力下重返工作岗位以及设定保护界限。本文并非将自我关怀视为一种个人健康实践，而是将其概念化为一种由结构性忽视塑造的情境化能动性形式。虽然数据反映了一个特定的历史时刻，但它们所产生的见解涉及到危机治理、边缘化以及恢复力的日常生成等更广泛的问题。通过将性交易从业者的声音和实践置于中心位置，本文提供了一种在系统性破坏下对自我关怀的政治敏锐理解。这项研究提供了关于边缘化个体如何应对危机状况的实证见解，推进了由系统性力量塑造的对自我关怀的关系性理解，并表明了基于同伴信息和社区方法的政策相关性。
