Race and sex on the Net 3
Sociologist Manuel Castells (1996) characterizes the emerging global society as
one based around flows of information and networks: “… the power of flows takes
precedence over the flows of power. Presence or absence in the network and the
dynamics of each network vis-à-vis others are critical sources of domination and change
in our society…” (Castells, 1996, p.467). The flows have a number of dimensions that
Appadurai (1990) refers to as scapes of ethnicity, technology, finance, media, and
ideology (p.296). The dominant flow for Castells is global capital, finding investments in
all aspects of life, even the most intimate (Castells, 1999, p.618).
McGrew and Held (2000) argue that we are witnessing a “shift or transformation
in the scale of human social organization that links distance communities and expands the
reach of power relations across the world’s major regions and continents” (p.4). Dorothy
Smith (1987) refers to power relations of race, gender, and sex as relations of ruling. The
relations of ruling transcend the local and particular, however, they are "constituted,
created, and practiced always within the local and particular" (1987, p.108). In the case of
sex tourism websites, while racialized understandings of sex workers are commonplace
among sexual tourists, the discussion boards operate as a local site where such identities
are formulated. Smith’s method of a sociology for women foreshadowed current
discussions about the relationship between the local and the global. Now, the local/global
dynamic is largely taken for granted in discussions of globalism. For example, Castells
defines globalization as a “decentered complex of processes where the micro and macro
and the local and the global are increasingly interdependent” (1999, p.618).
While globalization has many aspects, rarely studied is sex tourism, This is ironic
as tourism is a global industry in which sex tourism plays a significant role. The set of
Convention