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The ‘In/formal Nocturnal City’: Updating a research agenda on nightlife studies from a Southern European perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Begoña Aramayona

    (The University of Sheffield, UK)

  • Valeria Guarneros-Meza

    (The University of Sheffield, UK)

Abstract

During the last three decades, nightlife policies in Southern European cities have been directed towards promoting the night as a space–time for tourism-oriented promotion. At the same time, highly precarious, often racialised migrant actors performing informal activities during the night have been (re-)criminalised, put under surveillance and persecuted by public discourse and policy-making. The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the centrality of ‘the night’ as a fundamental cornerstone for urban governance. However, analysis of how debates on urban nightlife dialogue with frameworks on urban in/formality, security and governance during the day require a more systematic analysis. In this commentary, we call into question the role of the in/formal urban night in ordering neoliberal cities in Southern Europe. By focussing on informal workers during the night as exemplar cases of how in/formal nocturnal governance is produced, we propose an approach to incorporate deeper explorations in future nightlife studies along three avenues: (i) contradictory public discourses encompassed by ‘the night’, and how they are affected by long-term cultural, neo-colonial legacies and ‘darkness’ archetypes; (ii) survival and resistance strategies conducted by precarious/subaltern nocturnal actors during the day and night; and (iii) urban governance arrangements shaping and being shaped by the in/formal night in contemporary ‘Fortress Europe’. The research agenda suggested in this critical commentary aims to be a provocation, not only for nightlife scholars, but also for broader urban studies to take into deeper consideration how the criminalisation of ‘In/formal Nocturnal Cities’ is used in governance processes in contemporary (post-)pandemic cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Begoña Aramayona & Valeria Guarneros-Meza, 2024. "The ‘In/formal Nocturnal City’: Updating a research agenda on nightlife studies from a Southern European perspective," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(3), pages 589-603, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:3:p:589-603
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980231188512
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    References listed on IDEAS

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