Early efforts to understand and combat human trafficking focused primarily on migrant women and girls forced into the sex industry. In recent years, a wider range of exploitative labour practices have been addressed under the label of ‘modern slavery’. This term, though problematic in its broad definitional boundaries and appropriation of the historically resonant term ‘slavery’, is now frequently invoked in attempts to locate the problem of human trafficking and forced labour within the global marketplace, and address labour exploitation behind the production of a huge range of goods and services.
In this project, Centre member and ARC DECRA fellow Erin O’Brien explores how civil society can contribute to combatting this problem by mobilising ethical consumerism to address consumer demand as a key factor that fuels modern slavery.
More information is available on the project website.
Principal Investigator
