Regulating the Night

Examines the consequences of local decision- and law-making, questioning the extent to which licensing practices restrict cultural diversity and whether licensing policy actually fuels alcohol consumption. This book shows how cultural, economic and strategic changes have served to differentiate between 'acceptable' and unacceptable' cultures. 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'.