Search

Abstract Background Safe Spaces are a harm reduction approach commonly utilised in nightlife and festival settings to address alcohol and other drug-related harms. Despite increasing use, there has been little independent evaluation of safe space programs. This study aimed to explore (1) program user satisfaction with and use of a safe space program implemented in Sydney, Australia (The Take Kare Safe Space (TKSS)), and (2) the strengths and weaknesses of TKSS from the perspective of key stakeholders. Methods Semi-structured, in-depth, interviews lasting between 30 min to 1 h were conducted with 38 key program stakeholders, including staff from police (n = 4), ambulance (n = 4), a local hospital accident and emergency room (n = 4), local council (n = 2), city ‘rangers’ (n = 2), the TKSS program (n = 4), licensed venues and other nightlife service providers (n = 4), and program users (n = 14). Purposive sampling was used to identify key stakeholders to participate in interviews. Results Stakeholders stated that the TKSS program had a number of core benefits, including that it filled a service gap in nightlife settings; improved the efficiency and effectiveness of emergency services and other stakeholders operating in nightlife precincts; provided welfare services through proactive and non-judgmental interventions; and facilitated a means to de-escalate conflict without engaging police. Perceived weaknesses of the program included a lack of public awareness about the program; staff and volunteer levels; and misunderstandings regarding the scope and function of the TKSS program by some stakeholders. Conclusion This study demonstrates the complex relationships that exist around the delivery of harm reduction in nightlife settings. In particular, it highlights the relative lack of servicing of public nightlife settings and the value of safe spaces/peer-to-peer safety ambassador programs in linking up care and filling this service gap. Further, it documents the extended benefit across key stakeholder groups of delivering proactive and non-judgemental harm reduction services and, in doing so, provides critical evidence around their efficacy in reducing AOD-related harms in the night-time economy.

Sexual harassment is pervasive and often hidden, occurring on a continuum of violence against women, domestic abuse, and sexual violence (VAWDASV), and often underpinned by problematic attitudes and beliefs. Bystander interventions have been shown to illicit positive outcomes in VAWDASV prevention. Therefore, the Wales Violence Prevention Unit created the #SafeToSay campaign, to encourage prosocial bystander responses against sexual harassment. The campaign was delivered in two phases. Phase One was delivered in Cardiff and Swansea, calling everyone to action. Phase Two was delivered in Swansea and specifically engaged men. Both phases received a process and outcomes evaluation using social media and website analytics, and a public perception survey. The surveys showed that members of the public felt that #SafeToSay had drawn people’s attention to an important issue and had provided them with some of the information and skills needed to take prosocial bystander action against sexual harassment. However, men had particularly negative responses to some of the social media advertisements in Phase Two. Possible explanations for this have been explored. When considering future iterations of #SafeToSay, more work is needed to understand what works in engaging men and boys in violence prevention campaigns through research, focused engagement, consultation and coproduction with this group. Similarly, refining the target audience, including exploring options for targeting other socio-demographics, should be considered. This could be achieved through behavioural insights work, such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups. This would support the development of messaging to make the campaign more relatable to the desired target audience.

Prior studies on night market tourism have mainly investigated by governments and scholars on the current situation products and development strategies with descriptive research. There are no empirical studies that have explored the perceptions of tourists in the development of night market tourism. More importantly, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, issues of night market products and services, and tourists’ opinions about night markets have become a challenge. This study aims to examine the relationships between attitude, subjective norm (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC), perceived without travel risk, and visit intention towards night markets aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative approach was used using an online survey method involving 387 respondents followed by subsequent empirical testing of the proposed hypotheses, which was performed using SPSS and AMOS. The results indicate that attitude, SN, PBC, and perceived without travel risk positively influence intention. Furthermore, SN also displayed a significant positive influence on attitude, PBC, and perceived without travel risk. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations were discussed.

This research examines the factors that influence the behavior of young Vietnamese participants in the nighttime economy (NTE). The established factors were based on the results of a questionnaire distributed among 405 young individuals living, learning, and working in Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. The data obtained confirm the predictive power of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model to describe the NTE participants’ behavior. The study showed that perceived benefits have a direct influence on NTE participation behavior and an indirect influence through attitudes and the intention to participate; risk perception has only a direct effect on NTE participation behavior. One of the most significant factors in shaping behavioral intentions is financial readiness for consumption, which emphasizes the pragmatism and rationalism of NTE participants in spending their own money. In addition to being pragmatic and rational, the NTE participants’ behavior is influenced by cultural opportunities and the development of nightlife facilities.

The increasing proportion of night consumption in the total daily consumption means the night economy has become an indispensable part of national economic development. However, early social science research on alcohol in the night economy and social science research on the night leisure industry dominated our understanding of the night city. Few researchers have built effective mathematical statistical models to explore the spatio-temporal distribution and regional interactions of the night economy. This paper presents a method to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution pattern of the night economy based on multi-source data. Firstly, K-Means++ and DBSCAN were used to cluster OD points to identify the gathering areas of night activities. Then, the local L-function in “flow space” was used to extract the aggregated flow of each aggregation area and analyze the regional interactions. Finally, the correlation between night activity and night service facilities was calculated by using geographic detector, and night activity and lighting were coupled by the profit and loss value. The research shows that this method can identify the main areas of night activity, dig out the interrelationships at the community level, and find the new night activity gathering points and night economic growth areas in the future. This study extends the current situation that the night economy is limited to theoretical research and research in central urban areas, provides the temporal and spatial distribution of night activities and night lighting supplies from the perspective of big data, and provides a basis for future night economy research, urban planning, and relevant policy issuance.

Although pre-drinking has attracted considerable research interest, side-loading (any drinking occurring outside of licensed premises during a night out, and excluding drinking at home) is comparatively under-studied. In this paper, we investigate the prevalence of side-loading behaviour and intoxication in the night-time economy of Hamilton, New Zealand’s fourth-largest city. Using a street-intercept survey conducted over six nights (n = 469) in March and April 2019, we found that 17.5% of research participants (82/469), and 19.9% of drinkers (82/413), had engaged in side-loading. Of those engaging in side-loading, the majority did so in a car (61.0%), with smaller proportions engaging in side-loading in the street (17.1%), a carpark (12.2%), or somewhere else (13.4%). Men were significantly more likely than women to engage in side-loading behaviour (p = 0.001). In linear models controlling for time of the night, day of the week, and demographic variables, side-loading was not statistically significantly associated with breath alcohol content. This contrasts with pre-drinking, which was associated with statistically significantly higher breath alcohol content. Our results suggest that side-loading might not be used as a method for drinkers to enhance intoxication, but instead as a means of sustaining a target level of intoxication during an evening.

Abstract Every city has built environments that are largely regarded as eyesores, for aesthetic, social, or moral reasons. Urban nightlife streets are examples of such ‘grimy heritage’. Not only shabby and disorderly, they harbour forms of commercial sex, drinking cultures, and ephemeral nightlife cultures that many city residents and government officials consider undesirable. Sometimes their built forms are regarded as the enemy of genuine heritage architecture, since they obscure more solid, carefully designed structures around them. However, in many cities, organic nightlife streets—developing in such spaces precisely because they were derelict or poorly regulated—serve important social functions as spaces of creativity and community formation. This paper examines the ways that such ‘grimy heritage’ has developed in Shanghai and Tokyo, using examples from ethnographic research and historical sources, and addressing the question of the contribution of the ‘grimy heritage’ to authentic, urban social life.

The activity of the urban night-time economy is one of the most important indicators reflecting the prosperity of an urban economy. The business circle is an important carrier of urban commercial activities and the core area of urban nightlife. This paper takes the main urban area of Yiwu city as the research object. Based on POI data and night-time light remote sensing data, two-factor mapping, kernel density analysis, DBSCAN clustering, and local contour tree methods are adopted to identify the business circle structure of the main urban area of Yiwu city and analyse the relationship between business circle characteristics and the night-time economy. The following conclusions can be drawn. (1) The spatial superimposition relationship between the night-time remote sensing data and points of interest (POI) data in the main urban area of Yiwu city is good, and the overall coupling results show obvious circle structure characteristics. (2) The spatial distribution of different business combinations has obvious regularity: comprehensive shopping business shows a multicentre distribution pattern and has a hierarchical feature. In contrast, professional food and beverage and leisure and entertainment businesses are close to urban residential areas, and different groups of people live in different places with their own characteristics. (3) From 2015 to 2019, the brightness value of each business circle showed a continuously increasing trend. In 2020, due to the impact of COVID-19, most of them declined. (4) Overall, the difference in business circle tiers reflects the difference in the level of night-time economic activities.

Since the 1990s, dance cultures played a key role in revitalizing post-industrial cities. As recent research indicates a correlation between the closure of music venues and gentrification processes, few studies explore how nightclubs are a central part of urban regeneration. The proposed article uses a governmentality framework to assess London’s 24-hour City Vision and the business model of a new mega-club, Printworks, funded by estate giant British Land, arguing that London’s attempt to ‘save nightlife’ requires a better understanding of the dynamic between the night-time economy and urban planning.

Abstract Background Alcohol-related violence is associated with licensed premise environments and their management. There is a lack of evidence for effective interventions to address these, and there are significant barriers to implementation. This study aims to understand how development and implementation processes can facilitate intervention reach, fidelity and receipt and therefore provides key process data necessary to interpret the results of the randomised controlled trial conducted in parallel. Methods A process evaluation, embedded within a randomised controlled trial. Intervention development and implementation were assessed via focus groups (n = 2) and semi-structured interviews (n = 22) with Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs). Reach and fidelity were assessed via routinely collected intervention data, which was was collected from 276 licenced premises across Wales, UK. Case study semi-structured interviews with licensed premises proprietors (n = 30) explored intervention receipt. Results Intervention co-production with senior EHPs facilitated organisational adoption and implementation. Training events for EHPs played an important role in addressing wider organisational concerns regarding partnership working and the contextual integration of the intervention. EHPs delivered the intervention to 98 % of intervention premises; 35 % of premises should have received a follow up enforcement visit, however EHP confidence in dealing with alcohol risk factors meant only 7 % of premises received one. Premises therefore received a similar intervention dose regardless of baseline risk. Intervention receipt appeared to be greatest in premises with an existing commitment to prevention and those in urban environments. Conclusions The study suggests that a collaborative approach to the development and diffusion of interventions is associated with high levels of organisational adoption, implementation and reach. However, the lack of enforcement visits represents implementation failure for a key mechanism of action that is likely to influence intervention effectiveness. To be effective, any future intervention may require a longer implementation period to develop EHP confidence in using enforcement approaches in this area and multiagency enforcement support, which includes the police, to deliver an adequate intervention dose.

This article explores the reproduction of ethnified urban spaces and inequalities in an ostensibly cosmopolitan city. It does so by means of a case study of bouncers’ policing practices in the nightlife of the Danish city, Aarhus. In recent years, a substantial body of research has explored the regulatory practices of bouncers operating in the urban night-time economy. This article contributes to the study of nightlife policing by paying special attention to the ethnic governance of bouncers. More specifically, the article investigates how ethnicity is produced in bouncers’ administration of nightlife accessibility; how inclusion and exclusion are negotiated in encounters between bouncers and ethnic minority youth; and how bouncers struggle to avoid allegations of discrimination and to uphold notions of colorblind good governance, while ethnified notions of troublesome individuals continue to inform bouncers’ production of nightlife safety.

Simultaneously feared and desired, night is a polemic field in Johannesburg in general and in Maboneng in particular. In this space which is undergoing a process of gentrification in the lower-class neighbourhood of Jeppestown, the nocturnal practices of the lower classes are indeed invisibilized, devalorized and criminalized by the dominant classes who are reinvesting nocturnal spaces. This symbolic and material reinvestment of space and time has also an economic dimension: the night-time economy is thought as a way to revitalize and securize nocturnal urban spaces. However, the extension of the night-time economy encounters contestations. Through discourses and material transformations of nocturnal urban spaces, political and economic issues turn the night into a political object, into an urban frontier.

This study examines the development of rave inspired clubculture in China between the late 1990s and the present. It focuses in particular on the harsh suppression of clubland by the Chinese state in 2000, the reactions of clubbers and the club industry, and the clubcultural transformations that resulted from the suppression. A nationally coordinated anti-drug campaign that specifically targeted dance clubs was orchestrated by the central government and it has forced many clubs to close down. The rent-seeking practices of local officials also greatly intimidated clubbers. Clubbers and club operators adapted to the adverse circumstances by transforming club spaces and inventing new club practices. Although these adaptations have kept clubculture alive, they also generated negative socio-cultural impacts: the undermining of sociality inside dance clubs, the weakening of the communal dimension of clubculture and the exacerbation of socio-economic stratification in clubland.