Exploring nightlife in the university city of Cluj-Napoca (Romania): a mixed methods research study

Cristian Emanuel Adorean,Viorel Gligor,Oana-Ramona Ilovan,Jordi Nofre

doi:10.11143/fennia.90011

Abstract

The university city of Cluj-Napoca in Romania is one of the clearest examples where ‘the night’ (including restaurants, bars, discotheques, clubs, and also museums, exhibitions, and theatres) has been essential for the vitality of the city. Despite the importance of ‘the night’ for the everyday life of the city, the role of the night-time leisure economy in the social and urban change of European post-socialist cities remains underexplored. Based on mixed research methods, this paper aims to examine the recent development of the night-time leisure economy of Cluj-Napoca. After a theoretical approach in which we highlight the long underexplored path that still exists in relation to the study on the political, social, cultural and economic factors of ’the night’ in post-socialist cities from South-Eastern Europe, the paper shows a quantitative approach about a range of variables that define the different (and unequal) forms of consuming the night in the city centre of Cluj-Napoca. The second part of the paper shows the results derived from the quantitative study about the different perceptions and visions that employees, residents, venue owners, and municipals have about nightlife in Cluj-Napoca. The paper concludes by suggesting that a greater institutional attention should be provided to the development of the night-time leisure economy in the city centre of Cluj-Napoca in order to avoid the reproduction of 'segmented nightscapes' that highly feature the night in Central and Western Europe.

Highlights

Visit the stunning, new party destination of Cluj, growing rapidly in popularity amongst tourists
Based on mixed methods research (Johnson et al 2007; Hesse-Biber 2010), this paper aims at examining the urban night in the student-city of Cluj-Napoca in North-Western Romania (Fig. 1)
Based on mixed research methods, this paper has examined the recent development of the nighttime leisure economy of Cluj-Napoca city centre

Summary

Introduction

New party destination of Cluj, growing rapidly in popularity amongst tourists. Over this past decade, the growing number of tourists, visitors and university students in Cluj-Napoca in North-Western Romania has converted its nightlife in one of the most attractive and lively nights across Romania and beyond. The growing number of tourists, visitors and university students in Cluj-Napoca in North-Western Romania has converted its nightlife in one of the most attractive and lively nights across Romania and beyond The construction of this vibrant night in the city is resulting from a set of complex processes of multifaceted political, social, economic and cultural processes that have affected Cluj-Napoca and Romania themselves, and most Eastern European countries after the fall of socialism in late 1980s and early 1990s until today. To date, much of literature related to nightlife continues focused on Anglo-Saxon countries, while very little has been said about case studies situated at both physical and academic edges such as European medium-sized former socialist cities

Objectives and methods

Findings

Conclusions