Welcome to the research project Socialisation of the Sexually Explicit Imagery : Challenges to Regulation and Research website.

The project is funded by the British Academy and aims to bring together academics, activists and policymakers to identify and discuss the dynamics of the global industry of sexually explicit imagery, its implications for communication content for those involved in the industry, flow and conditions of labour conditions and construction of consumption patterns, as well as transdisciplinary issues related around the changing notion of public sphere, safety, choice and liberty. The project’s approach is to explore visible and subtler links to other industries (popular culture, sex industry, fashion, music, electronics and software etc) and analyse the potential consequences of these links for societies and economies. Finally, the international network focuses on questions of policy as they address or not the issues raised.

The core team is exploring  national cases and contexts initially. Outreach and an open approach to collaboration and design for future research and policy agendas are the main objectives of this project, starting therefore with an inaugural meeting in Athens in 2008 and concluding the first phase of launching the network in Leeds in 2009.

This project also receives funding and supporrt from the Centre for International Communication Research (CICR) the Media Industries Research Centre (MIRC), the Faculty of Media at the University of Athens (Media.UoA), the Centre for Canadian Studies and the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds

Dr K.Sarikakis (k.sarikakis@leeds.ac.uk ), and Dr L. Tsaliki, (etsaliki@media.uoa.gr).