ABSTRACT
Economic and political restructuring over the past three decades has wrought many changes on the cities we live, work and play in. One part of this restructuring has been the development of a new urban brand which has reshaped many parts of city landscapes into corporate entertainment, nightlife and leisure hubs (Hannigan 1998; Gottdiener 2001), much of which is characterized by the ritual descent of young adults into citycentre bars, pubs and clubs especially during the weekend (Hollands 1995; Chatterton and Hollands 2001; Hobbs et al. 2003; Hatfield 2006). Visiting pubs, bars and clubs, has become an integral part of many young people’s consumption lives today, with 80 per cent of the 15-24 year-old group visiting pubs and clubs in the UK (Mintel 2000: 15). This chapter analyses young adults’ changing experiences of a ‘night out’ in the UK context (drawing primarily on three cities, Leeds, Bristol and Newcastle), and is concerned with the production, regulation and consumption of the ‘night-time economy’ (or ‘urban nightscapes’, see Chatterton and Hollands 2003). To help unravel the relationship between youth and the night-time economy, this
chapter draws upon two levels of analysis. First, such urban nightscapes can be understood through an integrated circuit of culture comprising processes of production, regulation and consumption. In this sense, while nightlife venues are clearly commercially manufactured by a range of multinational, national, regional and local operators, and regulated by various legislative frameworks and formal and informal surveillance mechanisms such as bouncers, CCTV, and pricing policies, there is also a lived consumer experience and the role young adults play in shaping such spaces. Second, urban nightscapes can be understood as a mixture of mainstream, residual and alternative nightlife spaces. Owned largely by international corporate players, mainstream nightlife is characterized by the well recognized commercially branded and themed premises found in all UK cities which cater to much of the hedonistic rituals one normally associates with a night out (ibid.). Residual, community spaces such as traditional pubs, ale houses and saloons, which were a significant feature of industrial cities, have been left to decline or have been eroded, due to the changing priorities of nightlife operators and consumer
tastes. Finally, there are a range of independently run and alternative nightlife spaces which cater for more specific youth cultures, identities and tastes, some of which are selforganized, such as free parties, unofficial raves and squatted social centres (Chatterton 2002). Clearly, such consumption spaces and their youth audiences are somewhat fluid and
do at times overlap. However, the argument being made here is that, increasingly, urban nightlife has become dominated by mainstream production, through greater corporate control and concentration of ownership via processes of branding and theming (Klein 2000); mainstream regulation, through practices which increasingly aid capital accumulation and urban image-building (Harvey 1989); and mainstream consumption, through the adoption of new forms of segmented nightlife activity driven simultaneously by standardized, homogenous and commercialized provision and the impact of gentrification and the adoption of ‘up-market’ lifestyle identities amongst groups of young adults (Hollands 2002). Hence, although many city centres have achieved a ‘cool’ nightlife status and reputation, they have done so ironically by becoming more alike in terms of ownership, while also becoming more unequal and socially segmented consumption arenas, each with their own set of codes, dress styles, language and tastes (Chatterton and Hollands 2003). While young adults clearly do have an ‘agency’ role here, it is important to stress, borrowing rather liberally from Marx, that they ‘make their own nightlife, but not under conditions of their own choosing’. Below we detail the domination of mainstream nightlife spaces over residual spaces, and some of the struggles by young people for alternative forms of nightlife provision.
