Deborah Talbot

Racism, criminalization and the development of night-time economies: Two case studies in London and Manchester

Abstract 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.

Early parenting and the urban experience: risk, community, play and embodiment in an East London neighbourhood

This article will critically examine theories of risk – referred to in this article as ‘pro-risk’ – as applied to parenting cultures in the UK through a case study of early years parenting, based in Walhamstow, East London. Common to all of these theories is an assertion that children are over-parented – a product of economic, social and cultural changes such as the decline of community as well as theories of child-centred parenting. Through the close examination of two examples where risk and community were contested, the article will argue that missing from these theories is an understanding of the embodiments of early years parenting, which underpin the way that parents handle the tensions between risk and development. Further, that parents sought to militate against isolation and the decline of community through local parenting networks.

The juridification of nightlife and alternative culture: two UK case studies

Nightlife, the night‐time economy and ‘alternative’ culture have been a source of academic contestation over recent years, with differing views as to the direction and meaning of the contemporary drift of law and policy that serve to regulate this area of social and cultural life. Further, there have so far been few attempts to theorise the nature of change. This article aims to highlight some key theoretical underpinnings that can facilitate an understanding of the kinds of regulatory innovation that pervade nightlife and alternative cultural forms. Using two case studies – free or alternative festivals and Form 696 – it specifically draws on the concepts of disciplinary power and juridification as a way of theorising both the acceleration of regulatory forms and its impact on the production of alternative culture.

Regulating the other side: disorder, exclusion and subcultural closure in the night-time economy

Abstract The aim of this article is to examine the concept of ‘alcohol-related disorder’ in the night-time economy as a reified notion that neglects the broader impact of economic, social and cultural influences on nightlife. The combined impact of gentrification and disorder management have in turn created and reinforced an idea of nightlife that is dominated by the culture of consumption; marginalising the potential for experimental subcultures while creating an apparatus of control and moral disapproval directed at the ‘binge’ drinking, common assault and nuisance. The paper will draw on historical frameworks that demonstrate that the regulation of nightlife has, since the earliest licensing statute, been concerned with consolidating big business and criminalising popular cultural forms, a precedent that continues today. The argument will be made that, rather than focusing on nightlife as an undifferentiated social problem, researchers should look more broadly at the cultural, spatial and regulatory barriers facing a creative and diverse nightlife.

Symbolism and the 'free market': the regulation of alcohol and anti-social behaviour past and present

The concept of anti-social behaviour (ASB) was a product of New Labour’s ‘third way7 thinking, yet concepts of disorder and incivility, which have a strong interrelationship with the idea of anti-social behaviour, have a long tradition in English sensibilities and civil law. This is nowhere more obvious than in the regulation of alcohol and entertainment.