ABSTRACT
Since the 1980s, social researchers have developed a growing interest in city centers “as symbolic of the urban way of life” (O’Connor 1994). From the 1970s many cities in both the US and the UK have experienced extensive deindustrialization, with significant declines in city centers. Today, with the development of the post-modern or post-industrial city, a marked “revalorization” of the city centers has occurred. This redevelopment took place not as a result of traditional production but as a result of the development of a consumption-based economy, which began to play a major role in the reinvigoration of the inner-city areas. Specifically, this economywas based on the consumption of entertainment, leisure, and culture (O’Connor 1994). The city has become “an Entertainment Machine leveraging culture to enhance its economic well-being” (Lloyd and Clark 2000: 1). Because much consumption of entertainment takes place at night, scholars have increasingly viewed the nighttime economy as an important area of research.Until very recently, researchon thenighttime economyhad beenmarginalized: “the night-life of a city was not a legitimate object for attention… other than as something to be regulated and contained” (Lovatt 1996: 143).
