Night-time Economy Research Articles

Manufacturing marginality. (Un-)governing the night in Berlin

As the night-time economy gains relevance in discourses on Berlin's urban development, ‘the night' has become a contested term. Night-time use of public space is the object of growing public dissatisfaction, especially in certain areas of the borough Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. This paper looks at the governance arrangement that evolves in response to this problematization through the lens of one specific project. The so-called fair.kiez project gathered a broad coalition of state and non-state actors, local and citywide organizations to mediate use-conflicts regarding night-time noise, littering and unruly behavior in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. Having evaluated the conception and implementation of this project, we suggest that this project is exemplary for a specific un-governing of recent conflicts between residents and economic interests in an entertainment and consumption-oriented city economy. The fair.kiez project reveals interlocking patterns of this (un-)governing, such as the manufacturing of a specific consent, the marginalization of the problem and a shift to symbolic policies. A horizontal governance arrangement is formed and public demands are answered, but ultimately the issue is rendered un-governable. In analyzing the un-governing of the night as an example for the process of de-politicization this paper contributes to debates on post-political urban governance.

The role of alcohol in constructing gender & class identities among young women in the age of social media

Research suggests young women view drinking as a pleasurable aspect of their social lives but that they face challenges in engaging in a traditionally ‘masculine’ behaviour whilst maintaining a desirable ‘femininity’. Social network sites such as Facebook make socialising visible to a wide audience. This paper explores how young people discuss young women’s drinking practices, and how young women construct their identities through alcohol consumption and its display on social media. We conducted 21 friendship-based focus groups (both mixed and single sex) with young adults aged 18–29 years and 13 individual interviews with a subset of focus group respondents centred on their Facebook practices. We recruited a purposive sample in Glasgow, Scotland (UK) which included ‘middle class’ (defined as students and those in professional jobs) and ‘working class’ respondents (employed in manual/service sector jobs), who participated in a range of venues in the night time economy. Young women’s discussions revealed a difficult ‘balancing act’ between demonstrating an ‘up for it’ sexy (but not too sexy) femininity through their drinking and appearance, while still retaining control and respectability. This ‘balancing act’ was particularly precarious for working class women, who appeared to be judged more harshly than middle class women both online and offline. While a gendered double standard around appearance and alcohol consumption is not new, a wider online audience can now observe and comment on how women look and behave. Social structures such as gender and social class remain central to the construction of identity both online and offline.

Drink Less Enjoy More: effects of a multi-component intervention on improving adherence to, and knowledge of, alcohol legislation in a UK nightlife setting.

To estimate the association between implementation of a community-based multi-component intervention (Drink Less Enjoy More) and sales of alcohol to pseudo-intoxicated patrons and nightlife patron awareness of associated legislation. Cross-sectional pre-intervention and follow-up measurements, including alcohol test purchases (using pseudo-intoxicated patrons) in licensed premises (stratified random sample; 2013, 2015) and a survey with nightlife patrons (convenience sample; 2014, 2015). One UK municipality with a large night-time economy. Licensed premises (pre=73; follow-up=100); nightlife patrons (pre=214; follow-up=202). The Drink Less Enjoy More intervention included three interacting components: community mobilization and awareness-raising; responsible bar server training; and active law enforcement of existing legislation prohibiting sales of alcohol to, and purchasing of alcohol for, a person who appears to be alcohol intoxicated: 'intoxicated', herein for economy. The primary outcomes were alcohol service refusal to pseudo-intoxicated patrons and nightlife patron knowledge of alcohol legislation (illegal to sell alcohol to, and purchase alcohol for, intoxicated people), adjusted for potential confounders including characteristics of the area, venue, test purchase and nightlife patron. Pre-intervention, 16.4% of alcohol sales were refused, compared with 74.0% at follow-up (P<0.001). In adjusted analyses, the odds of service refusal were higher at follow-up [adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=14.63, P<0.001]. Service refusal was also associated with server gender and patron drunkenness within the venue. Among drinkers, accurate awareness of alcohol legislation was higher at follow-up (sales: pre=44.5%; follow-up=66.0%; P<0.001/purchase: pre=32.5%; follow-up=56.0%; P<0.001). In adjusted analyses, knowledge of legislation was higher at follow-up (sales: aOR=2.73, P<0.001; purchasing: aOR=2.73, P<0.001). Knowledge of legislation was also associated with participant age (purchasing) and expectations of intoxication (sales). A community-based multi-component intervention concerning alcohol sales legislation in the United Kingdom (UK) was associated with a reduction in sales of alcohol to pseudo-intoxicated patrons in on-licensed premises in a UK nightlife setting and an improvement in nightlife patron awareness of associated legislation.

The everyday world of bouncers: a rehabilitated role for covert ethnography

The focus of this article is on the everyday world of bouncers in the night-time economy of Manchester, England. The structure of the article is to contextualise my covert passing in this demonized subculture followed by explorations of the everyday world of bouncers through the related concepts of door order and the bouncer self. A part of the article is an examination of the management of situated ‘ethical moments’ during the fieldwork and, more generally, critical reflections on emotionality, embodiment and risk-taking in ethnography. I also reflect on the retrospective and longitudinal nature of my fieldwork immersion, and both the data management challenges and possibilities this brings. Covert ethnography can be a creative part of the ethnographer’s tool kit and can provide an alternative perspective on subcultures, settings and organisations. By overly frowning upon the apparent ethical transgressions of covert research, we can stifle and censor the sociological imagination rather than enhance it. My call is for a rehabilitation of covert research.

“Reclaiming Northbridge”: Urban (Dis)Order and Territorial Stigmatisation in Perth’s Night Time Economy precinct

Cutting across three waves of Night-Time Economy (NTE) research, this paper is concerned with (i) the entrepreneurial shift in urban governance from which the strategic planning and development of NTEs arose; (ii) the stigma that came to surround some NTE precincts as these deregulated spaces became characterised as violent and disorderly; and (iii) the processes of securitisation and gentrification that are reterritorialising NTE spaces. The paper draws on the concept of territorial stigmatisation in presenting a case study of Northbridge – the largest nightlife precinct in the West Australian capital of Perth – exploring the media-circulated discursive utterances of a range of actors with symbolic power (politicians, business people, the police, bureaucrats, reporters, etc.), the stigmatised image of Northbridge (re)produced and reified by these utterances, and the suite of interventions these images have legitimated. These interventions, it is argued, constitute a process of reterritorialisation that is reordering and redefining who and what is (un)desirable and included/excluded. In doing so, they erode the counter spaces of the NTE – spaces where counter-hegemony and difference can take place, and which constitute the liberating potential of nightlife.

Reconfiguring the violent encounter? Preloading, security staff and breathalyser use in the night-time economy

BackgroundIn a culture of preloading and late-night licenses, alcohol-related violence remains a persistent problem for police and public health. Understood as a ritualized ‘micro-social’ interaction (Collins 2009a, 2009b), entry into bars and clubs is a particular flashpoint for violence between bouncers/door staff and customers. MethodsA police-led initiative to deter excessive drunkenness and preloading using hand-held breathalysers (the #RU2Drunk scheme) was investigated from the perspective of security and bar staff using the devices. Interviews (n = 18 + 12), a focus group with security staff (n = 22) and a focus group with a security company (n = 3) were conducted in two seaside towns in the South-West of England, UK. A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted. FindingsDoor staff emphasised the normality of ‘determined drunkenness’ and associated violence in their working lives. Breathalyser use appeared to disrupt the ‘ritual’ of the violent encounter by reconfiguring it into an interaction between customer and technology. This depersonalized the judgement about who was ‘too drunk’ to enter the venue, with the more discretionary nature of who to breathalyse hidden from customers. Other door staff found it less useful and saw it as a challenge to their authority and expertise. At a managerial level there was concern about the transfer of responsibility for policing the night time economy (NTE). ConclusionThere is potential to reconfigure the violent encounter for door staff using breathalyser devices. However, this is more likely to succeed where other structural limits (e.g. restrictions on late licenses) are in place, and as part of wider policy initiatives to reconfigure the alcohol-saturated NTE leisure scene.

How did live music become central to debates on how to regulate the Victorian night-time economy? A qualitative analysis of Victorian newspaper reporting since 2003

In Victoria, Australia, considerations of live music have become central to debates on how to best regulate the late-night economy. This paper examines the origins of this consideration and the reasons it has become a key matter in policy discussion about late-night licensing regulation. Using a media analysis of 110 Victorian newspaper articles (2003–2016), this paper demonstrates how the newspaper media has exerted significant power in producing a live music discourse. The live music discourse was firmly established by 2010, driven by the Tote Hotel’s closure (referenced in 52 articles). The number of live music stakeholders engaged in the debate (80 quoted) far outweighed those from the government (26 quoted), impacting the overall presentation of the regulations along with the value of live music to the state. Gaps in media coverage, and the political context in which these matters were being debated aided advocates in facilitating subsequent regulatory change in favour of live-music venues. Consequently, it is argued that the media reporting contributed to a policy environment where perceptions of a threat to live music venues have become a barrier to restricting hours of sale in the future.

Intimate attunements: Everyday affect in Sydney’s drag king scene

For over a decade, attending events featuring drag king performances—a subcultural phenomenon where women consciously perform masculinity—proved a popular pastime in Sydney, Australia. Established within a broader tradition of live performance culture but also part of a wider urban night-time economy catering to lesbian patrons, Sydney’s drag king scene sustained a range of activities and interactions that took place in the vicinity of the performances on stage. In this article, I draw on data collated from a series of group discussions with scene participants, alongside my own immersive form of participation over a sustained five-year period, to review the role of affect within the drag king scene. Combining Lauren Berlant’s account of queer intimacies with Kathleen Stewart’s rendering of atmospheric attunement, I consider how the act of being together engenders an intimate attunement of the everyday potentialities of the scene.

On the Actual Risk of Bystander Intervention

Objectives: Bystander studies have rarely considered the victimization risk associated with intervention into violent, dangerous emergencies. To address this gap, we aim to identify factors that influence bystanders’ risk of being physically victimized. Method: We observed bystander behavior from video surveillance footage of naturally occurring violence in nighttime economy settings, and data were analyzed with a logistic regression model. Results: Data show that approximately one of the six interventions results in some type of victimization, typically with a relatively low degree of severity. The bystander’s social group membership, the setting of the emergency, and the bystander’s intervention type are estimated as risk factors for victimization. Conclusions: Previous research suggests that a bystander’s social group membership with victims promotes intervention behavior. Our results expand the role of social group membership as being a factor that also influences whether the intervening bystander is victimized.

Judgement of Breath Alcohol Concentration Levels Among Pedestrians in the Night-Time Economy-A Street-Intercept Field Study.

To evaluate how well people in the night-time economy can assess their own breath alcohol concentration (BrAC), in the context of a change in breath alcohol limits for driving. We conducted a field study of 242 participants over 5 nights in the central business district of a university town in New Zealand. Participants completed a short survey, which included questions on their self-reported level of intoxication and the self-estimated BrAC. At the conclusion of the interview each participant was breath-tested. We compared actual and self-estimated BrAC using a scatter plot and multiple regression methods. The average BrAC error was 61.7 μg/l, meaning that on average participants overestimate their BrAC. Participants with a BrAC below 487 μg/l tended to overestimate their BrAC on average, and those with a BrAC above 487 μg/l tended to underestimate their BrAC on average. Regression results supported this observation, but also found that men who are not 'out on a typical night' overestimate their BrAC by more. Drinkers in this naturalistic setting have little idea of their level of intoxication, as measured by BrAC. However, this uncertainty may be advantageous to public health outcomes, since if drinkers are uncertain about their level of intoxication relative to the legal limit, this may lead them to avoid drunk driving. A field study of drinkers in the night-time economy of a New Zealand university town was conducted to evaluate how well drinkers can assess their breath alcohol concentration (BrAC). Drinkers in this setting inaccurately estimate their intoxication, and those with higher BrAC tended to underestimate their BrAC on average.

The impact of breathalysers on violence and attitudes in the night-time economy

The current study evaluates the efficacy and acceptability of a month-long pilot breathalyser scheme for pubs and clubs implemented in the UK. During the initiative 818 people were breathalysed. The number of violent crimes (excluding domestic abuse) decreased by almost 40 percent compared with the previous year, while violent incidents increased in a comparison location. The Assault Related Injuries Database (ARID) of admissions to Accident and Emergency showed there were fewer alcohol-related injuries during the initiative. Over 75 percent of respondents to an online survey ( n = 310) supported the breathalyser scheme. Results suggest the breathalysers may promote moderate drinking and result in less violence. However, the number of crimes is small and fluctuates over time, so more research is needed to demonstrate whether this initiative is effective.

Pre-Drinking and the Temporal Gradient of Intoxication in a New Zealand Nightlife Environment

We measured changes in the average level of intoxication over time in the nighttime economy and identified the factors associated with intoxication, including pre-drinking. A random intercept sample of 320 pedestrians (105 women; 215 men) was interviewed and received breath alcohol analysis in the nighttime economy of Hamilton, New Zealand. Data were collected over a five-night period, between 7 P.M. and 2:30 A.M. Data were analyzed by plotting the moving average breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) over time and using linear regression models to identify the factors associated with BrAC. Mean BrAC was 241.5 mcg/L for the full sample; 179.7 for women and 271.7 for men, which is a statistically significant difference. Mean BrAC was also significantly higher among those who engaged in pre-drinking than those who did not. In the regression models, time of night and pre-drinking were significantly associated with higher BrAC. The effect of pre-drinking on BrAC was larger for women than for men. The average level of intoxication increases throughout the night. However, this masks a potentially important gender difference, in that women's intoxication levels stop increasing after midnight, whereas men's increase continuously through the night. Similarly, intoxication of pre-drinkers stops increasing from 11 P.M., although remaining higher than non-pre-drinkers throughout the night. Analysis of BrAC provides a more nuanced understanding of intoxication levels in the nighttime economy.

Street Pastors: On security, care and faith in the British night-time economy.

This paper presents a study of Street Pastors in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Street Pastors are Christian volunteers who look after vulnerable people in the night-time economy. In this manner, they provide securitas through empathy and care. The motives of Street Pastors for engaging with partygoers are multi-layered, but their personal faith appears to be a key explanation. A certain kind of orthodox certitudo – of being safe in, and saved by, a higher power – gives the pastors their strength to go out on the street, face the unknown and feel compassion for their fellow citizens. As such, both ‘securitas’ and ‘certitudo’ highlight positive (that is, constitutive) connotations of safety and security not commonly heard in the criminological literature.

Down the local: A qualitative case study of daytime drinking spaces in the London Borough of Islington

BackgroundRecognising the lack of research on daytime drinking practices in areas with managed night-time economies (NTEs), this qualitative study explores the phenomena in the London Borough of Islington; a rapidly gentrifying area with a highly regulated night-time economy (NTE). The objectives were to (i) Characterise the daytime drinking spaces of the local alcohol environment and (ii) Theorise the ways in which these spaces, and the practices and performativities within them, are situated within broader social and economic trends. MethodsAdopting a legitimate peripheral participation approach to data collection, 39 licensed premises were visited in Islington and on-site observations carried out between the hours of 12 pm and 6 pm using a semi-structured observation guide. Observations were written-up into detailed fieldnotes, uploaded to NVivo and subject to a thematic analysis. FindingsThe daytime on-premises alcohol environment was characterised by two main trends: the decline of traditional pubs and a proliferation of hybrid establishments in which alcohol was framed as part of a suite of attractions. The consumption trends that the latter exemplify are implicated in processes of micro-cultural production and ‘hipster capitalism’; and it is via this framing that we explore the way the diverse local drinking spaces were gendered and classed. Hybrid establishments have been regarded as positive in terms of public health, crime and safety. However, they could also help introduce drinking within times and contexts where it was not previously present. ConclusionThe intersection of an expanding hipster habitus with Local Authority efforts to tackle ‘determined drunkenness’ create very particular challenges. The operating practices of hybrid venues may feed into current alcohol industry strategies of promoting ‘new moments’ in which consumers can drink. They blur the divisions between work and play and produce temporal and classed divisions of drinking.

Developing a framework for managing the night-time economy in Wales: a Health Impact Assessment approach

The night-time economy can have major impacts on the health and well-being of individuals. A framework for managing a safe and prosperous night-time economy aids the coordinated approach to develop sustainable, healthy and safe night-time economies. This case study outlines the approach of a prospective Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to re-develop an existing reactive framework for managing the night-time economy in Wales. Inclusion of a range of stakeholders in the process enabled the reformulation of realistic proactive objectives which account for both health and well-being. This article highlights the benefits of HIA and can be used to inform future policy developments.

Sweet Spots for Hot Spots? A Cost-Effectiveness Comparison of Two Patrol Strategies

Research QuestionCan police substantially reduce targeted patrol time without increasing crime and disorder in crime hot spots already receiving high levels of patrol, at high-risk times, to find a more cost-effective ‘sweet spot’ level of patrol staffing for each hot spot?DataMerseyside Police measured police presence every 5 min via GPS location trackers from body-worn police radios for five pairs of matched geo-fenced hot spots of crime and disorder in a larger night-time economy area. Crime and incident data were also collected in each of the ten hot spots, over two nights on each of six consecutive weekends, with matched crime data from the same 12 nights 1 year earlier, and matching GPS data from two weekend nights before the 6-week experiment.MethodsThe research design was a Maryland-Scale Level 4 test in which a group of five pairs of hot spots was randomly divided into one member of each pair receiving substantially reduced patrol time compared to the standard level received by the other member of the pair. The five experimental hot spots received at least 12–15 min of police presence every hour. Higher levels of patrol were maintained or increased in the control group consisting of the other five hot spots. Patrol time in the ‘reduced patrol’ experimental group was tracked and supervised closely with weekly individual feedback to a uniformed team of one sergeant and three constables. Another 40 uniformed officers working the larger area (including the five control group hot spots) were tracked to ensure they stayed out of the experimental hot spots.FindingsThe experiment delivered 35% less police time in treatment hot spots than in patrol hot spots. Total incidents reported by citizens to police dropped for the five ‘reduced-patrol’ experimental hot spots but not for the five high-patrol control spots. The cost of policing the experimental group was estimated at £2380, compared to £3977 for the control group, for financial cost savings of 40%.ConclusionsThe promising findings from this small-scale pilot study provide a good case for replications, using longer time periods or more hot spots for greater statistical power. If a range of patrol times per hour can be compared within matched pairs of hot spots, police commanders and patrol teams may be able to find an optimal ‘sweet spot’ of crime prevention without excess patrol for each kind of hot spot. This approach appears to offer great potential for redirecting police time to prevent even more harm in other places or with other kinds of police work.

Lifestyle gambling, indebtedness and anxiety: A deviant leisure perspective

While once subject to wide-ranging state control, gambling has successfully culturally embedded itself within the normalised and legitimised forms of leisure such as the night-time economy, sports fandom and online forums of socialisation. Consequently, this article argues that existing research which conceptualises gambling as separate from everyday life is largely obsolete in the contemporary context. We argue here that gambling has become an integral feature of the wider masculine weekend leisure experience, intimately connected to an infantilised consumer identity that is peculiar to late-capitalism. This article, drawing upon ongoing ethnographic research among what we term ‘lifestyle gamblers’, utilises a deviant leisure perspective to problematise the myriad harms that emerge from this relationship, situated within a broader critique of consumerism and global capitalism. While social gambling is defended fiercely by the industry, this article argues that an identity-based culture of sports-betting that attaches fragile social and cultural capital to the allure of the gambling win encourages the chasing of losses and impulsive betting. Underscored by a culture of readily available and high-interest credit, we explore how gamblers in a technologically accelerated culture develop a pathological relationship to money as it becomes desublimated and loses its symbolic value. Such processes, exacerbated by the promise of consumer culture, have the potential to cast these young adults into a paralysing reality of indebtedness that is fraught with depression, stress, domestic instability and destructive behaviours of consumption.

Queensland Alcohol-related violence and Night Time Economy Monitoring project (QUANTEM): a study protocol

BackgroundAlcohol-related harm is a substantial burden on the community in Australia and internationally, particularly harm related to risky drinking practices of young people in the night-time economy. This protocol paper describes a study that will report on the changes in a wide range of health and justice outcome measures associated with major policy changes in the state of Queensland, Australia. A key element includes trading hours restrictions for licensed premises to 2 am for the state and 3 am in Safe Night Precincts (SNPs). Other measures introduced include drinks restrictions after midnight, increased patron banning measures for repeat offenders, mandatory ID scanning of patrons in late-night venues, and education campaigns.MethodsThe primary aim of the study is to evaluate change in the levels of harm due to these policy changes using administrative data (e.g., police, hospital, ambulance, and court data). Other study elements will investigate the impact of the Policy by measuring foot traffic volume in SNPs, using ID scanner data to quantify the volume of people entering venues and measure the effectiveness of banning notices, using patron interviews to quantify the levels of pre-drinking, intoxication and illicit drug use within night-time economy districts, and to explore the impacts of the Policy on business and live music, and costs to the community.DiscussionThe information gathered through this project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Policy and to draw on these findings to inform future prevention and enforcement approaches by policy makers, police, and venue staff.

A Study on Consumers’ Attitude towards Night Time Economy in Kochi, Kerala

Night time economy in simple words can mean the economy after dark. Lifestyles and employment practices that are completely different from the laws of the past is slowly changing the social and cultural life unionisedaround nine to five „business hours‟. The 24-houreconomy has become truth in many metropolia around the world, yet the change over from a daytime usual „business hour‟ economy to a 24-hour economy is hardly taken up for discussion by decision makers and the news media. This concept has got the attention of fewer peoplethan the economic importance of Sunday shopping, toname a few and the following development of the seven???day economy. Still, the advantages which are real, as well as notional, of stretching the economy, cultural and social life into late night, have a far greater reaching significance than Sunday shopping. The paper discusses the beginning of night economy with late night shopping tendency and support from the state government in Kochi, Kerala which if developed carefully has the potential to become a full-fledged night economy. The paper also explores the attitude of the customers towards night time economy.

The pleasures of drunken one-night stands: Assemblage theory and narrative environments

BackgroundIn this study, we use assemblage theory to investigate the link between alcohol use and one-night stands. MethodsThe data come from qualitative interviews conducted with 104 young participants in the night-time economy. ResultsWe show that: (i) alcohol-fuelled sexual explorations (e.g. erotic fantasizing, flirting and sex) are of paramount importance for young partygoers; (ii) sexualized territories (e.g. private parties, rural feasts and the backseat of cars) significantly shape the experience and performance of one-night stands; and (iii) contrary to previous research, one-night stands are to a large degree associated with pleasure—the immediate pleasure of having sex and the long-term pleasure of telling about it to others. ConclusionWe argue that drunken one-night stands are part and parcel of a drinking culture that places high value on sexual encounters and personal sex stories.