Bringing the problem home: The anti-slavery and anti-trafficking rhetoric of UK non-government organisations
| Author | Rose Broad,Nick Turnbull |
| Published date | 01 May 2022 |
| Date | 01 May 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0263395720962402 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395720962402
Politics
2022, Vol. 42(2) 200 –215
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0263395720962402
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Bringing the problem home:
The anti-slavery and anti-
trafficking rhetoric of UK non-
government organisations
Nick Turnbull and Rose Broad
The University of Manchester, UK
Abstract
Rhetoric is a way to explain policy problem framing by recognising the practical necessity to persuade
audiences in contextual situations. Modern slavery and human trafficking is a complex and emotive
problem, simplified through rhetorical demands to motivate an audience of supporters. This
article analyses rhetoric by 212 UK anti-trafficking and anti-slavery non-government organisations
(NGOs) to uncover rhetorical practices and their effects on policy framing, supplemented by
archival research to compare past and present anti-slavery oratory. Our data show NGOs use
rhetoric to motivate supporters and promote a humanitarian problem frame, in opposition to a
state-driven security frame. Findings confirm other research in identifying an emphasis on female
victims and on sexual over labour exploitation. Past and present rhetoric are equivalent in terms
of liberal, Christian values (ethos) and appeals to pathos through sympathy for victims. Historical
rhetoric is distinctive in arguing for the equal human status of slaves, whereas contemporary
activists argue victims are denied agency. Contemporary rhetoric represses the question of
migration, whereas past rhetoric is more deliberative. Rhetoric varies with the requirements of
persuasion related to contextual distance, between unlike humans in the past, but in regard to
geographical distance today.
Keywords
distance, human trafficking, modern slavery, policy framing, rhetoric
Received: 10th January 2020; Revised version received: 25th June 2020; Accepted: 17th August 2020
Introduction
The framing of policy problems is a key theme in public policy scholarship, with a variety
of approaches proposed to explain it (see 6, 2018). Rhetoric is a productive way to think
about the framing of problems, because it integrates the analysis of ideational framing
with the practical imperative for orators and writers to persuade audiences. The problem
Corresponding author:
Nick Turnbull, Politics Department, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road,
Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
Email: nick.turnbull@manchester.ac.uk
962402POL0010.1177/0263395720962402PoliticsTurnbull and Broad
research-article2020
Special Issue Article
Turnbull and Broad 201
of modern slavery and human trafficking is an exemplary case, given the emotive tone of
discourse in this policy field, and its prioritisation on the crime policy agenda for interna-
tional agencies and national governments. Research has shown that while the substantive
problem is a complex mix of diverse issues, public sphere discourse reduces this com-
plexity to simplified accounts. This framing effort arises from a strategy to link contem-
porary anti-slavery activism with successful, historical anti-slavery campaigns, in order
to attract resources and promote the problem on the policy agenda. Through rhetoric,
states, private-sector businesses, and non-government organisations (NGOs) engage in a
politics of framing modern slavery.
While some studies have been conducted of government and regulatory agency anti-
slavery discourse (Wilson and O’Brien, 2016), there is not yet an account of non-gov-
ernment activist rhetoric. This gap in the literature needs to be addressed, for two
reasons. First, NGOs and activists outside parliaments have historically been crucial in
anti-slavery reform, in framing slavery as a problem and in demanding abolition. This
remains the case, with much third-sector activism taking place around the world, such
that it constitutes an important political force warranting specific research attention.
And, given that these activists make strong appeals to their historical anti-slavery pre-
decessors, a comparison of past and present rhetoric will help us understand how con-
temporary activists generate continuities and divergences in anti-slavery politics.
Second, while states have the most power to frame policy problems, in the anti-slavery
case, it is the organisations outside the state that most strongly promote a humanitarian/
human rights problem frame in contrast to the state and its migration–crime–security
orientation (see Balch and Geddes, 2011; Goodey, 2008). Knowledge of the detailed
texture of anti-slavery rhetoric within the humanitarian frame will contribute to a better
understanding of modern slavery framing politics. We contribute to knowledge by
examining the language of UK NGOs, introducing an original perspective via rhetoric
analysis. We supplement this with a historical comparison of 19th-century anti-slavery1
rhetoric in order to ascertain how activists respond to different contexts by creating
interpretive continuity regarding the anti-slavery problem. The very fact of calling
various exploitative labour relations ‘modern slavery’ already employs a rhetoric drawing
on links with the past and makes strong moral claims about legitimate labour versus
exploitation.
The article examines this rhetoric by answering three research questions. First, it aims
to discover what rhetoric is used by contemporary NGOs in their anti-slavery and anti-
trafficking campaigns. Second, we ask how slavery and trafficking problems and solu-
tions are framed by this rhetoric. Third, we identify the similarities and differences
between contemporary and historical anti-slavery rhetoric, with a view to understanding
the persuasive appeals intended to generate the audiences’ sympathy for victims and
motivate it to act. We demonstrate that slavery is a problem whose uneven contours
require an appreciation of rhetorical framing.
Rhetoric and the problem of terminology
Scholarship and policymaking on modern slavery and human trafficking are difficult
because they have to deal with two complex problems that defy easy answers. The first
problem is empirical. Despite common usage of the terms and many countries enacting
policy to criminalise these activities, there is little clarity about the problem. Weitzer
(2015: 225) explains the definitional ‘quagmire’ surrounding its core aspects, including
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