Contradictions of Capital and Labor: Capital Accumulation and the Racialized Policing of Asian Massage Parlors in Seattle's Chinatown-International District

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dc.contributor.advisorFish, Carolyn
dc.contributor.authorChen, Kaijing Janice
dc.date.accessioned2023-03-24T19:21:44Z
dc.date.issued2023-03-24
dc.description.abstractMassage parlors in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District have experienced heightened police surveillance, mobilized by legislation that increasingly regulates massage labor performed by Asian migrant women. This wave of criminalization coincides with contested and renewed investment in the neighborhood, indicating the use of policing to displace workers and create the conditions for a new spatial fix, or the production of space through capital accumulation. Through an analysis of legislative records, police reports, and media accounts, I argue that the policing of Asian massage parlors draws on a sensationalist imaginary of human trafficking that simultaneously evokes longstanding racialized tropes and furthers the racialization of Asian migrant workers. Finally, I investigate how anti-trafficking rhetoric rationalizes greater police surveillance that displaces Asian massage workers and opens new spaces for capital accumulation.en_US
dc.description.embargo2025-02-03
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/28111
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregon
dc.rightsAll Rights Reserved.
dc.subjectAsian Americanen_US
dc.subjectmassage laboren_US
dc.subjectpolitical economyen_US
dc.subjectracial capitalismen_US
dc.titleContradictions of Capital and Labor: Capital Accumulation and the Racialized Policing of Asian Massage Parlors in Seattle's Chinatown-International District
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
thesis.degree.disciplineDepartment of Geography
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Oregon
thesis.degree.levelmasters
thesis.degree.nameM.S.

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