SW Steering Committee – Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force (SWEAT)
The SW steering committee is a governance group that over sees the implementation of the project. The Steering Committee was set up in September 2018, at the beginning of the implementation of the project, through a call that was made through SWEAT. We were guided by SWEAT on this matter but some of the main criteria in the call included having some background experience and/or interest in theatre and performance. We envisioned a sex worker led steering committee.
Our overall methodological approach is based on principles of participatory action research methods, where sex workers are equal and active participants throughout the project. In practice, our aim is the co-production of knowledge with sex workers based on developing democratic relationships. Our ‘conversations’/consultative process is facilitated by members of the steering committee and UCT-based researchers in collaboration with SWEAT. The aim is to: allow participants to generate their own ideas about the theatre work and theatre group; enable researchers to follow-up, clarify and elaborate on topics raised by the participants; encourage participants to develop ideas by exchanging thoughts/opinions and experiences in a group setting; and to provide an opportunity for a collective decision-making regarding the research process. More specifically, we envisage using voice, narrative and embodied theatre performance methods which will help us to elicit multisensory and intersectional experiences of gendered inequalities.