'This special edition investigates the contested nature of the sex industry, a global industry operating within socio-political contexts that have witnessed an array of changes in recent years. The papers contribute to advancing critical understandings of the ways in which the changing social landscapes have been experienced by those engaged globally in commercial sex work. This edition seeks to agitate some of the polarised debates often present within sex industry discourses by exploring some of the oftentimes overlooked nuances – the blurred lines – between the different sex markets, between sex as work and other forms of labour, between agency and constraint, and between care and control. It represents a shared vision to combine the voices of academics with those working within the sex industry and with practitioners, in order to offer a meaningful consolidation of research and lived experiences: one that does not simply grant lip-service to ‘empowering a marginalised and stigmatised social group’.'