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Introduction and Aims: The lockout intervention has become embedded in Australian alcohol policy with little scientific evidence of its effectiveness in reducing violence and disorder. This paper reports an evaluation of the Queensland lockout pilot in Surfers Paradise. Patrons could not enter or re-enter licensed venues after 3 am, while patrons inside at this time could stay until close.Design and Methods: Using police and ambulance data, time series analyses examined the impact of tourism seasons and the lockout on rates of crime, violence, injury and intoxication. Additional analyses were also conducted to show spatial and temporal changes in crime over time.Results: Both police and ambulance data showed that the lockout introduction had no statistically significant impact on rates of crime, violence, head and neck injuries, and intoxication over the 2 years following lockout. Hot spot maps indicated limited spatial shift of crime within Surfers Paradise following the lockout introduction, with evidence of a temporary intensification of crime in already established hot spots. We found a moderate statistically significant change in the 24 h distribution of crime after the lockout implementation, suggesting temporal displacement of crime.Discussion: Results support the small existing body of evidence on lockouts that indicates they are largely ineffective in reducing crime and injuries in entertainment districts.Conclusion: As multi-pronged strategies that include a lockout gain in popularity, further investigation should focus on identifying the key drivers of successful interventions such as the Newcastle strategy, to better refine these interventions for replication and evaluation elsewhere. [De Andrade D, Homel R, Townsley M. Trouble in paradise: The crime and health outcomes of the Surfers Paradise licensed venue lockout. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;35:564-572]. [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]

Conducting research on nightclub bouncers involves fieldwork with actors who have limited interest in having the details of their work become visible to third parties. Conversely, it is the specific interest of ethnography to make the invisible visible. Thus, the research process is a constant negotiation of two potentially conflicting logics of (in)visibility. Furthermore, it is shaped by potential risks and the requirements of ethical codes. Focussing on the study of an inexperienced researcher 'entering the field', this article provides insights into the themes of 'risks' and '(in)visibility' and shows how the two were interconnected throughout the whole process of the project, from fieldwork through to writing and publishing. It also shows how the researcher became an overt, but discreet participant observer whose fieldnotes contained intended and unintended blanks. The article suggests that ethnographic data always stays incomplete as the researcher partakes in a balancing act regarding what is revealed and what remains hidden. Intentional blanks help to confirm the researcher's trustworthiness in the eyes of the research subjects, and so are vital in making such research possible in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses a 2012 report by anthropologist Anne Fox, commissioned by the alcohol producer Lion Pty Limited, which suggests that alcohol consumption is not responsible for violence and anti-social behavior in night-time economies in New Zealand and Australia. Topics include Fox's suggestion that culture versus alcohol consumption determines behavior, Dr. Fox's failure to obtain ethics committee approval for the study, and Fox's recommendation of life-skills training and parent education.

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]

In urban policy discourses across Western Europe, video surveillance is often considered an important tool to increase the safety of consumers in city-centre areas in general, and in nightlife districts in particular. However, the question of whether closed-circuit television (CCTV) actually promotes experiences of safety is neither straightforward nor resolved. Although this topic has received substantial attention in the academic literature, relatively little research has been conducted on how users of public spaces perceive CCTV whilst in the midst of situations. By directly confronting study participants in the presence of CCTV cameras, we explore nightlife district visitors’ perceptions and understandings of CCTV in situ, in relation to safety when out at night in Utrecht and Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Potential differences regarding gender and ethnicity are also considered. We found, first, that our study participants’ awareness of CCTV during the practice of ‘going out’ was a continuum rather than a dichotomy (aware or unaware) and that fuller awareness of CCTV is related to greater personal safety. Second, we observed a large gap between the policy discourses surrounding CCTV and the understanding of nightlife district visitors regarding how CCTV works. It is suggested that one way of aligning visitors’ understanding and policy discourses is to shift the latter from a focus on ensuring safety towards offering assistance. For the delivery of such assistance in practice, CCTV needs to be integrated further with other forms of policing and surveillance, especially those forms that are compatible with a spatiotemporal logic of embodiment and situatedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aggression and other acute harms experienced in the night-time economy are topics of significant public health concern. Although policies to minimise these harms are frequently proposed, there is often little evidence available to support their effectiveness. In particular, indirect and displacement effects are rarely measured. This paper describes a proof-of-concept agent-based model 'SimDrink', built in NetLogo, which simulates a population of 18-25 year old heavy alcohol drinkers on a night out in Melbourne to provide a means for conducting policy experiments to inform policy decisions. The model includes demographic, setting and situational-behavioural heterogeneity and is able to capture any unintended consequences of policy changes. It consists of individuals and their friendship groups moving between private, public-commercial (e.g. nightclub) and public-niche (e.g. bar, pub) venues while tracking their alcohol consumption, spending and whether or not they experience consumption-related harms (i.e. drink too much), are involved in verbal violence, or have difficulty getting home. When compared to available literature, the model can reproduce current estimates for the prevalence of verbal violence experienced by this population on a single night out, and produce realistic values for the prevalence of consumption-related and transport-related harms. Outputs are robust to variations in underlying parameters. Further work with policy makers is required to identify several specific proposed harm reduction interventions that can be virtually implemented and compared. This will allow evidence based decisions to be made and will help to ensure any interventions have their intended effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The night-time economy is often described as repelling consumers fearful of the 'undesirable Others' imagined dominant within such time-spaces. In this paper we explore this by describing attitudes towards, and reactions to, one particularly contentious site: the 'lap dance' club. Often targeted by campaigners in England and Wales as a source of criminality and anti-sociality, in this paper we shift the focus from fear to disgust, and argue that Sexual Entertainment Venues (SEVs) are opposed on the basis of moral judgments that reflect distinctions of both class and gender. Drawing on documentary analysis, survey results and interview data collected during guided walks, we detail the concerns voiced by those anxious about the presence of lap dance or striptease clubs in their town or city, particularly the notion that they 'lower the tone' of particular streets or neighbourhoods. Our conclusion is that the opposition expressed to lap dance clubs is part of an attempt to police the boundaries of respectable masculinities and femininities, marginalizing the producers and consumers of sexual entertainment through 'speech acts' which identify such entertainment as unruly, vulgar and uncivilized. These findings are considered in the light of ongoing debates concerning the relations of morality, respectability and disgust. [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]

Against a background of discourses that link economic vitality of city-centres, consumption and safety to greater need for surveillance and policing, the current study takes particular interest in the city-centre night-time economy (NTE). This is a distinctive space–time where significant increases in surveillance and policing can be witnessed across cities in Europe and beyond. It is not evident, however, if and to what extent such interventions increase subjectively experienced safety and reduce fear of crime among people visiting city-centre bars and clubs on their nights out. Drawing on existing literatures on the NTE in cities, emotional geography, studies of surveillance and policing and the authors’ previous research, this study develops a ‘thicker’ and situational quantitative approach to examining the effects on subjectively experienced safety of different manifestations of surveillance and policing in the NTE context. The visible proximity of police officers and door staff of bars and clubs are shown to have stronger effects on experienced safety than the positioning of CCTV and whether their footage is watched live or not. Nonetheless, the effects of surveillance and policing on experienced safety are rather complex insofar that they are to a considerable extent relational in nature and also ambiguous. For instance, a key difference between police and door staff is that police officers are more often seen as a friend of everybody and their presence as enhancing experienced safety; responses to door staff are more ambiguous and differentiated along lines of ethnicity. It is also demonstrated that surveillance and policing reduce rather than enhance experienced safety for a minority of the study participants. [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]

Aims To address characteristics of drinking establishments, bartenders and patrons that may affect the likelihood of over-serving. Design A systematic examination of 425 purchase attempts with pseudo-intoxicated patrons enacting scripts that, according to the law, should lead to the denial of alcohol sales. Setting and Participants Drinking establishments in the three largest cities in Norway (Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo) were visited by male and female actors aged 20-30 years on weekend nights, with a total of 425 purchase items. Measurements Over-serving was recorded when the pseudo-intoxicated patron was served alcohol. Characteristics of the drinking establishment, the bartender and the pseudo-intoxicated patron were recorded systematically. Results Pseudo-intoxicated patrons were served in 347 of 425 purchase attempts (82%). In bivariate analyses, the over-serving rate increased with venue characteristics, music/noise level and intoxication level among patrons. These factors were intercorrelated and correlated with poor lighting. The over-serving rate was also higher when the pseudo-intoxicated patron was female and when the purchase attempt occurred after midnight. In multi-variate analyses, two factors increased the likelihood of over-serving significantly: a high problematic bar indicator score (poor lighting, high music/noise level and high intoxication level among patrons) [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 3.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.9, 6.4] and female gender of pseudo-intoxicated patrons (adjusted OR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.4, 4.7). The rate of over-serving was 95% when both risk factors were present and 67% when both factors were absent. Conclusions In urban settings in Norway, it is likely that over-serving occurs frequently, and is increased by the risk factors of poor lighting, loud music and high intoxication level among patrons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

England and Wales have experienced a decade of transformation concerning the legislative governance of urban public drinking spaces, yet the Evening and Night-time Economy (ENTE) retains its position at the top of ‘community safety’ agendas. This article reflects upon our research on alcohol law enforcement. We explore how some alcohol laws are ill-fit-for-purpose, whilst others are considered too difficult, or costly, to pursue. Subtle negotiations of compliance in which regulator and regulated form ‘partnerships’ are, at best, increasing trust and the flow of intelligence, and at worst, breeding complacency, inaction and regulatory capture. Gaps between headline statutory objectives and their delivery through policy implementation are being filled by corporate actors mobilising resources in line with central government predilections towards the outsourcing of control. In particular, the alcohol and hospitality industries promote ‘voluntary alternatives’ to the statutory roles and enforcement powers of city authorities and police. Replacing traditional law enforcement activity with self-regulation by alco-centric commercial interests is unlikely to assist attempts by public bodies, NGOs and other business sectors to engineer more diversified and inclusive urban nightscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the concept of the post-secular city by examining the growing presence of Street-Pastors in the night-time economy of British cities. Street-Pastors are Christian volunteers who work to ensure the safety of people on a ‘night out’. We contribute to work that has called for greater attention to be placed on the ways in which religious faith and ethics are performed to create liminal spaces of understanding in urban areas. Drawing upon in-depth ethnographic research conducted in a range of UK towns and cities, we consider this distinct form of faith-based patrolling in relation to the spatial processes and practices of urban-nightscapes. By exploring the geographies of Street-Pastors, we not only contribute to more nuanced accounts of ‘drinking spaces’ but provide an empirical engagement with the growing body of work on urban rhythms and encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Academic research tends to overlook what happens when night falls. This special issue aims to bring the space–time of the urban night to the fore by asking how nocturnal cities are produced, used, experienced and regulated in different geographical contexts. Despite local variations and specificities important similarities and ongoing transformations are identified regarding the long-term trends in the formation of the space–times of the urban night. We have structured this special issue on the basis of four important focal points of research for studying the night: (1) changing meanings and experiences of urban darkness and nights; (2) the evolution of the night-time economy; (3) the intensification of regulation; and (4) dynamics in practices of going out. By bringing different sets of literature and theoretical perspectives together this special issue provides a relational perspective on the urban night. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyses fear of crime in the night-time economy as an event that emerges from, and unfolds as part of, the on-going encounters with human and non-human elements in particular places. A conceptual approach to understanding fear of crime is elaborated that highlights the role of ambiguity, meaning that a particular element does not have stable, well-determined effects on fear of crime, and the importance of thinking of fear as the folding of immediate futures and the past into the experienced present. Drawing on empirical research with university students in Utrecht, the Netherlands, the article explores how lighting, policing and the presence of ‘undesired others’ affect fear. Multiple forms of ambiguity are shown to exist, suggesting that interventions in the built environment and zero-tolerance policing tactics are unlikely to reduce fear of crime in the night-time economy as much as past research, influential policy and media discourses have suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The development of the ‘night-time economy’ in the UK through the 1990s has been associated with neoliberal urban governance. Academics have, however, begun to question the use and the scope of the concept of ‘neoliberalism’. This paper identifies two common approaches to studying neoliberalism, one exploring neoliberalism as a series of policy networks, the other exploring neoliberalism as the governance of subjectivities. It is argued that to understand the urban night, we need to explore both these senses of ‘neoliberalism’. As a case study, the paper takes the ‘Alive After Five’ project, organised by the Business Improvement District in Newcastle upon Tyne, which sought to extend shopping hours in order to encourage more people to use the city at night. Drawing from actor–network theory, the planning, the translation and the practice of this new project are explored together with the on-going nature and influence of neoliberal policy on the urban night in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aims We tested whether patrons of the night-time economy who had co-consumed energy drinks or illicit stimulants with alcohol had higher blood alcohol concentration ( BAC) levels than patrons who had consumed only alcohol. Design Street intercept surveys ( n = 4227) were undertaken between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. over a period of 7 months. Setting Interviews were undertaken with patrons walking through entertainment precincts, queuing to enter venues or exiting venues in five Australian cities. Participants The response rate was 92.1%; more than half the study sample was male (60.2%) and the median age was 23 years (range 18-72). Measurements Data were collected on demographics, length of drinking session, venue types visited, types and quantity of alcohol consumed and other substance use. A BAC reading was recorded and a subsample of participants was tested for other drug use. Findings Compared with the total sample (0.068%), illicit stimulant consumers (0.080%; P = 0.004) and energy drink consumers (0.074%; P < 0.001) had a significantly higher median BAC reading, and were more likely to engage in pre-drinking (65.6, 82.1 and 77.6%, respectively, P < 0.001) and longer drinking sessions (4, 5 and 4.5 hours, respectively, P < 0.001). However, stimulant use was not associated independently with higher BAC in the final multivariable model (illicit stimulants P = 0.198; energy drinks P = 0.112). Interaction analyses showed that stimulant users had a higher BAC in the initial stages of the drinking session, but not after 4-6 hours. Conclusions While stimulant use does not predict BAC in and of itself, stimulants users are more likely to engage in prolonged sessions of heavy alcohol consumption and a range of risk-taking behaviours on a night out, which may explain higher levels of BAC among stimulants users, at least in the initial stages of the drinking session. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the Human Geography literature about the night-time economy through a comparative, time-geographical and quantitative analysis of nightlife consumption practices during students' nights out in the city-centres of the Dutch cities of Utrecht and Rotterdam. Considerable variation in nightlife practices between and within these cities is revealed with the help of cluster and discriminant analyses. For both cities five distinctive types of nightlife consumption are identified, and comparison shows that nightlife practices in Utrecht's city-centre are characterised by a stronger orientation towards bars/pubs and greater alcohol consumption, spatial clustering and ethnic homogeneity than in Rotterdam. It is also demonstrated that, contra some public discourses about the night-time economy, some types of city-centre nightlife practices are not characterised by excessive alcohol consumption. Finally, the analysis suggests that students' participation in different types of nightlife consumption in Utrecht and Rotterdam are only to some extent shaped by age, ethnicity, class and gender; education is most strongly associated with the type of nightlife consumption pursued, and this dimension should be given greater attention in future research on exclusion from the urban night-time economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article gives insights into the evolution of the dance club scene in the growing urban region of the Finnish capital of Helsinki in the 1990s. The development of two different club cultures – techno and house – is accounted for. Techno culture was to a large degree made meaningful through the social change towards a computerized information society. Its popularity grew rapidly, but this was followed by a steep decline. In comparison, house culture was legitimized through more subtle strategies and slowly built up its symbolic capital, excluding direct references to a social structural meaning-making. Both styles were eventually to become recognized beyond their young clubbing audiences, and were utilized in significations of other value systems. The study shows the interplay between the symbolics associated with the city’s club venues and historical and social developments, and how actors in the field of club culture reposition themselves over time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction and Aims. There is little research describing how intoxication levels change throughout the night in entertainment districts.This research aims to describe levels of alcohol intoxication across multiple Australian metropolitan and regional nightlife districts. Design and Methods. This study was conducted in the night-time entertainment districts of three metropolitan cities (Sydney, Melbourne and Perth) and two regional cities (Wollongong and Geelong) in Australia. Data collection occurred approximately fortnightly in each city on a Friday or Saturday night between 8 PM and 5 AM. Brief structured interviews (3-10 min) and breathalyser tests were undertaken in busy thoroughfares over six months. Results. Of the 7037 individuals approached to participate in the study, 6998 [61.8% male, mean age 24.89 years (standard deviation 6.37; range 18-73)] agreed to be interviewed. There was a linear increase in blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels throughout the night. Post hoc testing revealed significantly more highly intoxicated participants (i.e. BAC above 0.10 mg of alcohol per 100 mL of blood) after midnight (P < 0.05). The overall mean BAC was 0.06 mg/100 mL. Men were more intoxicated than women earlier in the night, but gender differences disappeared by 3 AM. There was no age differences in intoxication earlier in the night, but after midnight, patrons over the age of 21 showed increasing BAC levels. Discussion and Conclusions.There is a consistent trend across the cities of high to very high levels of intoxication later in the night, with trends after midnight being significantly different to those before. [Miller P, Pennay A, Droste N, Butler E, Jenkinson R, Hyder S, Quinn B, Chikritzhs T, Tomsen S,Wadds P, Jones SC, Palmer D, Barrie L, Lam T, GilmoreW, Lubman DI. A comparative study of blood alcohol concentrations in Australian night-time entertainment districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Against a background of widespread academic and policy interest in fear and security in urban consumption spaces across the Global North this paper explores subjective experiences of safety and the way these may be (un)affected by CCTV and on-street policing. Adopting a phenomenological perspective and drawing on the narratives of nightlife consumers in three Dutch cities (Utrecht, Rotterdam, Groningen), we propose to conceptualise safety as a range of 'meta-stable' experiential states. In the first and basic state we termed ‘absorptive coping’, nightlife consumers interact with the world as if on auto-pilot and are carefree; they are unconcerned about their safety and experience no trouble or worries. This state is suspended when consumers become ‘on the alert’. ‘Actual danger’ occurs when consumers perceive one or more individuals with the intention to do harm. We find that surveillance and policing practices can induce and affect transitions between the identified states. CCTV has marginal effects in this regard; on-street policing is more effective in preventing the states of being on the alert or actual danger and in shifting consumers back to absorptive coping. Yet, police presence and practices can also be counter-productive, triggering unease in consumers and suspending absorptive coping. Implications for the surveillance and policing of urban consumption spaces are outlined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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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]

Highlights: [•] ‘Night-time economy’ is critiqued as offering a framework for understanding urban nights. [•] Assemblage and affective atmosphere offer a new vision of night-time city centres. [•] This move takes studies of the night-time city beyond bars, pubs and clubs. [•] A move is made towards a conceptually and empirically broader study of the urban night. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

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.