Receiving shadows: governance and liminality in the night‐time economy¹

Abstract

This paper focuses upon the emergence of the night-time economy both materially and culturally as a powerful manifestation of post-industrial society. This emergence features two key processes: firstly a shift in economic development from the industrial to the post-industrial; secondly a significant orientation of urban governance involving a move away from the traditional managerial functions of local service provision, towards an entrepreneurial stance primarily focused on the facilitation of economic growth. Central to this new economic era is the identification and promotion of liminality. The State's apparent inability to control these new leisure zones constitutes the creation of an urban frontier that is governed by commercial imperatives.

Transgressive drinking practices and the subversion of proscriptive alcohol policy messages

“…Alcohol is deeply implicated in young adults' phenomenological experiences of social life and 'going out' in the UK (Hayward, 2004;Hobbs, Lister, & Hadfie, 2000), although 'priming' with cheap alcohol often takes place at home before venturing into town for the more expensive clubs (Kuntsche & Labhart, 2012). Going out can be seen as a spatial practice (de Certeau, 1984) that has ideological undertones within a consumer cultural context.…”

“…Drinking and drunkenness are "discursively and differentially constructed in different spaces and places" (Jayne, Valentine, & Holloway, 2008, p. 248) and entail movement in groups through urban environments of city centres, drinking zones, and clubs and venues which are transformed through drink into liminal zones (Hobbs et al, 2000). Urban spaces can be seen not as neutral but "products literally filled with ideologies" (Lefebvre, 1976, p.31).…”

“…obviously (1) fell asleep in a flower bed (1) with erm like pink just dribbling down his face =Denise = oh no =Connie = and then and then he went(.) he got up and went away and he disappeared and I didn't see him and I decided to go home about three o'clock in the afternoon he said he'd fallen asleep on the Macdonald's toilet floor Some of the drinking stories in the data sets hold an element of darkness and mystery, as drunkeness transforms human spaces into liminal zones (Hobbs et al, 2000). Some of the events described relate crime, and risk of serious harm with the whole experience rendered surreal by alcohol, as in the following quote:…”

More than just a 'city problem': Drugs and alcohol (mis)use in rural and regional Australia

“…The social and cultural milieux of both licit and illicit substance use have long and complex histories, with several seminal works shaping the direction and discourse of research within various AOD landscapes and engagement with diverse, heterogeneous populations (see, for example, Becker, 1963;Young, 1971;Parker, Aldridge & Measham, 1998;Hobbs et al, 2000). These influential studies, like many others that have followed, focused on the lived experiences and settings of users/use, examined social constructionist notions of deviance and criminality, and sought to explicate the socio-cultural norms, values and capital associated with AOD use.…”

Understanding English alcohol policy as a neoliberal condemnation of the carnivalesque

“…In this way, Hobbs, Lister, Hadfield, Winlow, and Hall (2000 , p. 703) characterise twenty-first-century local government as “municipal capitalism” in contrast with the “municipal socialism” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to such a view, where government once tightly regulated alcohol through licensing laws to ensure the productivity of the workforce, in the post-industrial, consumerist age, drinking is no longer understood as a problem for productive work, and therefore for capitalism.…”