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'Vertical drinking' is a longstanding concept in alcohol licencing decision-making and the literature on night-time leisure. As the term implies, it concerns drinking alcohol standing up. The proposition is simple: establishments where people stand to drink are associated with less desirable clientele, more drunkenness and a greater likelihood of crime and disorder. Existing research has explored how the concept of 'Vertical drinking' – known historically as 'perpendicular drinking' – can form part of heavily classed distinctions between 'civilised' and 'uncivilised' drinking practices. By examining 40 licencing hearings in England under the Licencing Act 2003, this paper demonstrates how vertical drinking serves as a: (i) proxy for 'uncivilised' drinking establishments, (ii) a proxy for problematic (working class) drinking bodies, and (iii) how the legal tool of the licence targets problematic drinkers by shaping the establishment in which they drink. Assumptions about problematic drinking bodies – this 'vertical drinker' – inform the regulatory distinction between 'civilised' and 'uncivilised' establishments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the regeneration proposals for two town centres in medium-sized towns in the north of England through the lens of urban design and nocturnal activities. Drawing from the field of night studies, it questions whether the hours of darkness have been included in the proposals and compares the extent to which findings and practical guidance from this emergent cross-disciplinary area of interest have been interpreted and incorporated. The paper argues that towns would benefit from addressing the specific characters and qualities of night time activities, including nightlife, in their policies and masterplans for revitalizing town centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consuming alcohol in night-time entertainment (NTE) precincts is a common practice for young adults in urban environments. Public health research often emphasises the 'harms' associated with drinking in NTE precincts and views these as being a product of the widespread availability of alcohol. However, this obscures more complex accounts of the various elements at play in young adults' drinking on a night out. Employing assemblage thinking and a meta-ethnography of published qualitative research in Australia, we analyse and assemble the socio-cultural and material elements that may coalesce in young adults drinking on a night out. We identify a broad range of elements in assemblages of young adults drinking, including norms, settings and places, social elements, and desirable effects. We suggest that public health researchers pay closer attention to the diverse range of socio-cultural and material elements in which young adults' drinking is entangled. We argue that assemblage thinking opens up new possibilities for maximising the social connection and pleasure that engaging in NTE precincts affords young adults while also minimising undesirable experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

London has a diverse and dynamic night-time economy (NTE) valued in 2018 at £5 billion. The London Assembly's vision for future growth includes creative partnerships with outer-London boroughs to share opportunity and minimise economic decline in suburban high streets. Studies from cities across the UK recognise the contribution of University students to the NTE, but the situation in suburban London is under-researched. This exploratory study based on evidence from 604 University students in Kingston upon Thames (London) addresses that issue. It identifies relationships between time-based activity spaces of student life style and the built environment; defines time-phases and levels of alcohol consumption reconstructing journey-to-drink movements; identifies patterns of night-time expenditure; positions activity spaces in student life style within a framework of management control and local crime environments; and examines town centre issues of victimisation and personal security. The study advocates further policy-informed studies of under-researched groups in the mosaic of recreational spaces throughout London's NTE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of binge drinking has in recent decades consolidated what is known as the 'culture of intoxication' among the young people of Spain. This has coincided with the increase in the use of mobile-phone technology and of social networks within the night-time economy. Our main aim is to explore these new, potentially risky uses and violent behaviours, through an analysis of the discourses of the young people involved. This is a qualitative study with in-depth interviews (n = 24) of young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two, resident in two cities in the south of Spain: Granada and Seville. Findings: our results show that gender violence is present in the contexts where alcohol is consumed intensively and is related to the use of the mobile phone in interpersonal or couple relationships. This violence is practiced mainly against the women, who suffer sexual harassment and violation of their public image through information and communication technologies. Our data show that prevention should consider the new vulnerabilities that are generated out of the problematic association between technology and alcohol, using innovative strategies that are adapted to the new patterns of youth behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws together recent scholarship from the study of urban tourism and nightlife. Though studies of urban tourism do not always specifically address nightlife, and likewise studies of the night and nightlife do not always examine tourism, both bodies of research overlap in important ways. Concerns about commercialisation, gentrification, displacement, and urban change are to be found in both bodies of research. However, while the study of urban tourism typically recognises the erasure of the host / guest binary and seeks to destabilise the notion of who is a tourist or stranger, studies of nightlife often rest on a much clearer distinction between who belongs and who does not. An argument proposed here is that while the host / guest, tourist / non-tourist binary is perhaps reconfiguring, the night and nightlife spaces reinstate these binaries in various ways. This paper thinks through debates about tourists and residents in the night, focusing in particular on questions of belonging, place identification and gentrification through night-time uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The processes of gentrification and tourism are often inextricably linked, but their relationship is not unequivocal: tourists can be explorers of stigmatised areas before gentrification or touristification can expel middle-class gentrifiers. In the post-socialist context, tourism and foreign consumers play an extremely important role in the gentrification process. This is especially true in our case study area the 'party quarter' in District VII of Budapest. The authors explore the inter-relationship between gentrification, tourism and the night-time economy in this area focusing on the effects of regulations and political struggles under post-socialist neo-patrimonial governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are tensions between agencies seeking to restrict and control the night-time economy (NTE) and those focused on promoting it. These tensions need to be inspected. Using perspectives from environmental criminology it has been hypothesized that planning governance issues, relating to the provision of public transport, taxis services and public toilets, may act to precipitate crime and disorder and exacerbate public safety issues. Utilising research findings from a study of regular users of the NTE's of Cardiff (UK) and Perth (Australia), we test this hypothesis. The research findings suggest that the most appropriate manner in which to deal with crime and disorder in the NTE is through inter-agency partnership approaches involving the users of the NTE. This approach refocusses the debate to explore the positive elements of the NTE we do want. This contrasts with many contemporary approaches focused solely on the negative aspects of the NTE we don't want. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Lockout laws' are not new in Australia – variants exist and have been trialled or continue to operate in Newcastle (since 2008), Melbourne (abandoned in 2008), and Adelaide (since 2013) and Darwin (since 2007). In February 2014, the New South Wales O'Farrell Coalition government introduced 1.30 am lockout and 3 am last drink laws for the Sydney CBD (Central Business District), among a series of other measures. The subsequent controversies about the 'lockout laws' in Sydney have provoked a curious and vivid set of debates encompassing crime, medical, moral, social, libertarian, cultural and industrial discourses. In this paper I wish to assess the new regulatory landscape within historical and contemporary perspectives of nightlife economies increasingly privileging cultural and entertainment city uses. Beyond unpacking the 'lockout' debate in terms of 'liveability' and 'cultural city' meanings as practised by Australian cities, this article will focus on the implications for Sydney's ability to maintain its national and global status as a music city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Niche theory proposes that in areas of high alcohol availability, alcohol sales outlets will compete for patrons by diversifying their operating characteristics to provide a diversity of drinking contexts. We aimed to characterize features of outlet operations that contribute to increased risk of alcohol problems across communities. We conducted ethnographic observations in 97 on-premise outlets across six California cities and interviewed staff and patrons in a subsample of these. We observed outlet managers deliberately altering the environments in 17.5% of establishments. These modifications aimed to increase bar/nightclub effects, enabling venues to "morph" (i.e. alter operating conditions from restaurant to bar, or from bar to club) and display environmental characteristics associated with over-service and alcohol-related problems (e.g. more young male patrons, crowding and dancing). Late night morphing was observed in some outlets in most cities and included outlets operating with restaurant licences. Staff and patrons identified morphing as a strategy to increase alcohol sales in late night hours. Competition for late night customers may encourage business practices that increase the number of alcohol sales establishments operating under risky circumstances. Community alcohol policies and practices should attend to the potential expansion of risky alcohol sales niches in night-time economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bars and drinking spaces constitute an essential aspect of night-time entertainment districts. Japanese bars, generally known asizakaya, served a variety of cuisines and drinks, and they have been a central part of urban nightscapes. After the bursting of the bubble economy and the decade-long recession since the 1990s, however, the cultures ofizakayahave changed dramatically. Drawing from the works of geographers, this paper critically examines recent changes in drinking spaces—particularlyizakaya—and discusses how their changes are impacting the transformation of the night-time entertainment districts in Japan. This paper addresses several problems that are emerging in the transformation of theizakayaindustry. Specifically, it problematizes the increasing numbers of corporateizakayachains that have been established in recent years. They tend to serve food and drinks at a much cheaper price than their competitors, such as family-runizakaya. This is possible by making use of cheap laborers and a scale economy. For this reason, many traditionally family-runizakayaare struggling, and they are gradually disappearing from today’s urban nightscape in entertainment districts. Detailed examples of several entertainment districts in Tokyo metropolitan area andizakayachains’ impacts in homogenizing the nightscape will be discussed at length. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The City of Sydney Council has presented their night-time economy plan (NTE) -- Open, Future directions for Sydney at night -- as a unique and substantial contribution to global city planning literature. This paper critiques the plan and demonstrates how Open is strongly aligned with, and constrained by the neoliberal-inspired cultural-economy framework of the Council's overarching policy vision: Sustainable Sydney 2030. Such co-opting of policy evinces an entrepreneurial shift in NTE planning where economic interests procure substantial voice in the consultation, and eventual policy directions of changing the nightscape. The paper explicates the economic imperative(s) of Open within the context of one inner city Sydney suburb, Surry Hills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Understanding the characteristics of drug users in the night-time economy (NTE), and whether particular drugs are associated with risky practices and experience of harm, is necessary to inform targeted policy responses in this context. Objectives: To investigate the correlates of drugs used in the Australian NTE relating to demographics, alcohol use, and experience of harm. Methods: Patrons were interviewed in the NTE of five Australian cities in 2012–2013 (n = 7,028; 61.9% male, median age 22 years). A custom designed survey gathered demographic data, alcohol, and substance use on the current night, and experience of harm in/around licensed venues in the past 3 months. Multivariate logistic regression analyses examined the correlates of drug use. Results: Ecstasy was most commonly reported (4.0%), followed by cannabis (2.9%), methamphetamine (2.6%), and cocaine (1.6%). Ecstasy users were more likely to be younger and report energy drink consumption. Cannabis users were more likely to be male, and to have been involved in intoxication-related accidents/injuries and sexual aggression in/around licensed venues in the past 3 months. Methamphetamine users were more likely to have been interviewed later, and to have engaged in pre-drinking. Cocaine users were more likely to be male, aged 21 years or more, have a blood alcohol concentration of greater than 0.10%, and to have been involved in intoxication-related accidents/injuries in the past three months. Conclusions/Importance: We identified significant differences between types of drug users and the harms they experience, underscoring the need to develop innovative harm reduction policies in the NTE rather than blanket population-based approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the ways in which young adults produce a sense of safety in pubs and clubs. Despite considerable anxiety around issues pertaining to safety and violence in the night-time economy, there is little consideration of how young adults themselves feel about their safety on a night out, or how they achieve a sense of safety in a seemingly ‘risky’ social space. Drawing on mixed-methods research conducted in Melbourne, Australia, in this article I consider the strategies that young adults used to feel safe on a night out. I argue that feeling ‘safe’ is something that is actively produced through the use of these strategies, as well as providing an avenue for ‘doing’ gender. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research on heavy drinking among women implies that this behaviour is deviant and criticised by society, which would suggest that intoxicated women are more likely than men to be denied alcohol at drinking establishments. However, a recent Norwegian study shows that it is more likely for intoxicated women than intoxicated men to be served alcohol. This article explores gender differences and overserving within licensed establishments. The data consist of qualitative interviews with bartenders and pseudo-patrons. The latter were actors who were seemingly intoxicated while attempting to purchase alcohol at drinking establishments. Our analysis suggests that there are three main reasons why alcohol is served to intoxicated women. First, female patrons are profitable for drinking establishments because their presence causes male patrons to remain at the venue and spend more money. Second, female patrons are regarded as being sexually available to other patrons and staff in the barroom, which is a heavily sexually charged scene. Third, female patrons are considered harmless and their presence even dampens male aggression. In contrast to these explanations, there is some concern for the safety of intoxicated women. The night-time economy in Oslo seems to combine a strictly gendered perception of male and female patrons with a new acceptance of female binge drinking. The overserving of female patrons can be regarded as a consequence of the combination of these two seemingly contradictory tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The night-time economy is a space of significant anxiety and concern. Recent high-profile incidents of alcohol-related violence in Sydney, Australia, have exacerbated community fears about the risks associated with the city after dark and placed the regulation and policing of nightlife in the media spotlight. This article is based on a content analysis of newspaper representations of Sydney's night-time economy and the policing and security of nightlife settings from 1996 to 2012. It argues that public police and private security are portrayed in contrasting ways. Print media reflects public ambivalence and insecurity by representing the private security industry as unruly and violent, and with links to criminality. In contrast, media portrayals of New South Wales Police reflect the conscious efforts of an increasingly media-aware police organization to protect its public image and reinforce its occupational legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates young women's alcohol consumption in the United Kingdom within a widespread culture of intoxication in relation to recent debates about postfeminism and contemporary femininity. Young women are faced with an 'impossible dilemma,' arising from the contradiction between a hedonistic discourse of alcohol consumption and postfeminist discourse around attaining and maintaining the 'right' form of hypersexual heterosexual femininity. Drawing on a recent interview study with 24 young white working-class and middle-class women in the South-West of England, we explore how young women inhabit the dilemmas of contemporary femininity in youth drinking cultures, striving to achieve the 'right' form of hypersexual femininity and an 'optimum' level of drunkenness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from recent affective geographies of drinking and drunkenness, this article explores the affective atmospheres of spaces of mobility in Melbourne's night-time economy and how these atmospheres shape the experience of alcohol-related problems. Our discussion is grounded in the analysis of interview data collected in 2012 among 60 young adults living in Melbourne. Participants included youth residing in the inner-city who reported taking a tram, walking or cycling to nearby venues along with youth from periurban communities who used trains, buses or taxis to travel to and from venues in the inner-city. Each group reported spending varying amounts of time on the move during a night-out drinking, although the atmospherics of mobility differed for each group. Inner-city participants described ‘comfortable’ or ‘fun’ journeys on the tram, walking or cycling, whereas participants from periurban communities spoke of ‘boring’ or ‘unpleasant’ journeys via train, night-bus or taxi. Moving beyond reports of the ‘priming’ effects of affective atmospheres, we conclude that these atmospheres are (co-)constituted in encounters between bodies, human and non-human, as they move. We close with a brief discussion of the implications of our analysis for the study of alcohol-related problems in the city at night. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: The epidemiology on recreational drug use is based on self-reported user surveys. The scope of this is limited as users are often not aware of exactly what drug(s) they are using. Waste water (sewage plant) analysis has been used to identify 'regional' recreational drug use but is limited by a lack of understanding of the metabolism and stability of novel recreational drugs. Aims: The feasibility of collecting pooled urine samples from a sub-population attending a night-club using a portal urinal to confirm the classical and novel recreational drugs being used. Design and Methods: Urine samples were collected from a nightclub over one weekend for analysis by various chromatographic techniques involving mass spectrometry. Results: Classical recreational drugs and novel psychoactive substance, including mephedrone, 3-trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine and 2-aminoindane were found. Parent drug/metabolites were also detected for amphetamine, cocaine, ketamine, MDMA, mephedrone and 3-trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine. Conclusion: Anonymous pooled urine samples from within a nightclub can be used to confirm the actual drugs being used by some individuals within this sub-population. Metabolite detection indicates drugs were being used and not simply discarded into the urinal. This methodology could be used to monitor recreational drug trend in other environments, e.g. schools, geographical regions/areas and compare drug use over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the importance of gatekeepers in facilitating access to key informants. Using the author’s experience of working in alcohol-related research, the problems in gaining interviews with licensees, security staff and club and bar operators are discussed. However, in a departure from an understanding of gatekeepers as fixed, I argue that we need a more fluid and rhizomatic model. Rather than being fixed, it is argued that gatekeepers are far less stable than first appears and can shape, open up, inform and re-direct the research process along often surprising trajectories. Extending this point, in the second part of the paper, gatekeeping is explored in terms of discursive and disciplinary practices. I ask how discursive gatekeeping, and specifically debates about responsible and irresponsible drinking practices, have shaped and informed research in this area. Again, a more fluid understanding of gatekeeping is developed in order to work through the complex and often contradictory ways that knowledge is produced, reproduced and generated in critical work on drinking cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Questions of embodiment are to be crucial in shaping the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion. To explore the way that these dynamics shape the use of leisure spaces, this paper examines the mediation of Carnage UK events, organised mass student excursions around spaces of nightlife that have proved controversial in many British towns and cities. It is suggested in this paper that the discursive framing of Carnage UK events reflects specific social anxieties about disorderly bodies, invoking distinctions based on classed, sexed and gendered notions of respectability and desirability. Highlighting themes relating to carnivalesque and excessive bodies, it is concluded that conflicts over the use of leisure spaces need to be understood in relation to representations of specific social groups as figures of both desire and disgust. In making this argument, the paper alights on the student as a key figure in contemporary debates concerning nightlife, leisure and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Live music has been subject to particular economic and regulatory threats in recent decades. Comparative research of regimes for the planning and management of live music venues was conducted in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne over the period 2008–2010. Methods included archival and legislative reviews, field visits and interviews with key authorities, venue operators, live music campaigners and other actors. This paper gives particular attention to Brisbane's place-based approach, which replaced previous noise, planning and liquor laws to create legislated ‘Entertainment Precincts’. Operators are granted certainty for investment, with increased protection from incompatible development and noise complaints, if they are located in the designated area. In Fortitude Valley, the night-time economy has prospered, preserving and supporting a number of live music venues and giving increased protection to a set of nightclub operators. This functional separation and concentration in Brisbane differs significantly to Melbourne, with its more liberal approach and diffused venues. Brisbane is effectively placing the problems in one key site, leaving the rest of the city with few live music or night-time entertainment options. The paper explores these outcomes and provides options for cities seeking to preserve live music and create accessibility to the night-time economy, but retain amenity for residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To conduct a follow-up study to assess the prevalence of use and popularity of emergent psychoactive drugs ('legal highs'), amongst London club-goers 12 months after previous surveys in the same location. Design: Four in situ surveys were conducted in July 2011 at the same two fieldwork sites as the previous surveys to assess the prevalence of self-reported use of both illegal drugs and 'legal highs'. Setting: Field study in the night-time economy in South London, UK. Participants: 315 customers in two 'gay-friendly' South London dance clubs. Measurements: Two-page research instrument designed for in situ drug surveys. Findings: Mephedrone remained the most popular drug used (increase from 2010 to 2011 from 27 to 41%% of those surveyed who had used or planned to use mephedrone on the fieldwork night). Mephedrone was also respondents' favourite drug. Conclusions: This survey suggests that the popularity of mephedrone surpasses other drugs, both legal and illegal, despite it having been classified illegal by the UK government over a year prior to this survey. Club-goers appeared undeterred by the legal classification of this emergent psychoactive substance. This study has implications for other countries and other drugs regarding the relationship between drug use and drug control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines changing patterns of work and play in the context of Sydney's night-time leisure economy. It documents some of the substantial changes that have occurred to the structure of work which have had clear ramifications for the leisure industry, including the proliferation of part-time, service-oriented labour within the leisure industry itself. These consequences include continuing and new manifestations of youth culture, and of anxieties concerning it. In examining such leisure phenomena it is argued that general, global trends can be discerned as well as specific, local adaptations produced by Sydney's specific history, geography and socio-cultural complexion. There is also some consideration of how political interventions through planning and even the hosting of mega events such as the 2000 Olympics have varied and contested impacts on the city, its leisure provision and ‘lifestyle’ amenity. It is concluded that Leisure Studies can make a significant contribution to the analytical understanding of after-dark life and the emergence of the 24-hour city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Late night events are an increasing feature of city entertainment and tourism. The phenomenon of Nuit Blanche, cultural festivals and museum nights has expanded across capital and other cities with a common aim and brand, but reflecting local and cultural aspirations. On the one hand, they provide an alternative to the problematic effects of late night binge drinking and mono-use of city centres by a younger cohort, and on the other hand, a global network of events that have expanded in scope and scale over the past decade. The article situates the event city within the competitive, ‘cosmopolitan city’ through a comparative analysis of late night events in capital cities, with examples from London's night-time economy and programmes of extended opening of museums and cultural venues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Increasingly ubiquitous references to night-time economy within urban revitalisation agendas mark the concept as a standard component in a globally circulating 'post-industrial city' script. The merit of the concept rests upon an assumed capacity for diverse and vibrant nightlife to contribute to urban quality of life and city marketability. Its attraction to cities seeking to expand the profitability and utility of the spectacular landscapes of consumption established along waterfront and within inner-city locales reclaimed from post-industrial disuse are readily apparent. However, only certain kinds of nightlife convey the prerequisite cultural sophistication necessary for making a 'correct' contribution to the desired city image. Consequently, nightlife is cast as a site of problematic behaviour and nightlife policy settings aimed at shifting the dominant cultures of night-specific consumption become implicated in demarcating the boundaries of appropriate activity. This paper examines these themes with respect to Newcastle, Australia. Through an analysis of the representations of nightlife cultures in local policy and planning, this paper argues that a significant contributor to the sense of crisis permeating Newcastle's after-dark urban culture has been the entanglement of nightlife in urban renewal and city re-imaging processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nightlife has historically been identified as a social problem. In the contemporary context, however, this perspective competes with the promotion of the ‘night-time economy’ as a source of economic regeneration and extended licensing as a means to establish a more genteel ‘café society’. However, these changes have concealed a reconfiguration of differentiating strategies. This article explores this neglected issue through two cases studies, one based in London and one in Manchester, and examines the fate of black cultural forms, venues and licensees in contemporary nightlife. It will argue that, due to the historical criminalization of black youth, music and residential areas, black cultural spaces have been subject to a process of exclusion in the new playgrounds of the night-time economy. The implications of this for social cohesion will be examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]