About
The SMS Study Group is convened by UK-based sociologists from global south countries and hopes to facilitate dialogue between global south and UK based scholars, and in particular to provide an intellectual space in which to:
(a) develop a critique of 'the new abolitionism';
(b) foster critical and nuanced research on the phenomena dubbed 'modern slavery’, including but not limited to trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, worst forms of child labour, sexual exploitation, forced criminal activities;
(c) encourage attention to the extensive and forcible restraints on freedom that are sanctioned by liberal democratic states and so stand outside dominant discourse on 'modern slavery' (e.g. through immigration detention, immigration controls, workfare, prison industrial complex, etc.); and
(d) explore the relevance of scholarship and debates on the afterlives of slavery and colonialism for all of the above.
Annual Report
The Slavery and Modern Slavery Study Group Annual Report is now available.