1st Edition
Regulating the Night Race, Culture and Exclusion in the Making of the Night-time Economy
The promotion of night-time economies in town centres across Britain has sparked new fears about disorder, violence and binge-drinking. However, there has been little consideration of the social and cultural benefits of a diverse urban nightlife. This timely work examines the processes that have led to a mainstreaming of subcultural expression at night, and the impact of legislation aimed at providing the police and councils with new powers to manage and contain the ’social problem’ of contemporary nightlife. Based on an ethnographic study of a London locality, the book examines the unwitting consequences of local decision-making, and the contradictory struggles that ensued. Utilizing the concept of the 'outsider area' as a space that stands outside of conventional norms, and where cultural innovation and transgression can occur, it explores the social consequences of losing contact with the 'other'.
Biography
Dr Deborah Talbot is a Lecturer in Criminology at the Open University, UK, and has written widely on licensing law, cultural development and the emergence of night-time economies in the UK.
’Regulating the Night is a wonderful contribution to the study of that subcultural space called nightlife, especially as it flourishes in the contemporary inner city. Deborah Talbot has produced a book bristling with ideas and insights (and indeed attitude) about the de-regulation and re-regulation of this space, using her own extensive interviews with the people who count - the residents, the club owners, the police officers, the councillors, the officials, the regenerators, the clubbers, the dealers and the drinkers.’ John Fitzpatrick, University of Kent, UK 'Regulating the Night presents a clear, convincing and detailed argument and offers rich empirical fi ndings regarding race, culture and exclusion in terms of the licensing, planning and the policing of the night-time economy.' Crime Media Culture
