Abstracts

Measuring, Regulating and Governing Nightlife in the Americas

Jess Reia, University of Virginia, USA

Abstract: Nightlife is a crucial aspect of our contemporary cities, encompassing territories, communities and multiple activities. It has emerged as a vital component of urban governance worldwide, which led to policies to contain, support, and develop the urban night. Conflicts over the “right to the night” involving several stakeholders have been addressed differently by municipalities. Various efforts to govern, regulate and measure the night have been emerging in the last decade, from grassroots movements to appointed night mayors. The Covid-19 pandemic’s arrival in the West led to the closing down of night culture and, two years later, the socioeconomic effects of this process are not completely known. In this context, even the increasing datafication of urban spaces has had little impact in the city after dark, given that this aspect of urban life is rarely the focus of data-centric initiatives. The lack of data focusing specifically on the nighttime economy, and robust analyses of these initiatives beyond daylight leave stakeholders—municipal governments, small businesses owners, neighbourhood associations, night-shifters—navigating challenging circumstances without essential information. This presentation focuses, more broadly, on the consolidation of nightlife governance mechanisms, regulatory frameworks and ways to measure the night in the Americas; and, specifically, on the recent development of a participatory agenda to govern nightlife in Montreal, Canada. Building on the Night Studies transdisciplinary field, this work is based on regulatory and policy framework analyses, interviews, participant observation, and advocacy experience as a member of Montreal’s first Night Council (Conseil de Nuit de MTL 24/24).

Neoliberalism and the Nocturnal: A View from the UK

Marion Roberts, Emerita Professor of Urban Design, School of Architecture & Cities, University of Westminster, London UK

Abstract: As UK nightlife has developed since the millennium, its proponents have combined to create an effective lobby, getting their voices heard in central and local government circles. New organisations and posts have been created and novel practices instituted. Nightlife increased in political legitimacy both prior to and during the pandemic. Economic research carried out by the Greater London Authority demonstrated however that hospitality and entertainment were not the most dominant of activities in the time span 18.00-06.00. The pandemic shone a spotlight on health and social care, while Kolioulis et al (2021)‘s important work has exposed an expansion in the gig economy. This presentation will discuss these trends and question whether an alternative scenario for the night might be possible. Sacha Lord, Night Time Economy Advisor for Greater Manchester, tasked his city to ‘build back better’. But what can that mean? Can an alternative citizens’ plan be made for the urban night?

Urban Governance Strategies for Sustainable Urban Night Spaces and “Good Night Out Vancouver”

Sara Gwendolyn Ross, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Canada

Abstract: Following extensive public consultations and a two-year pilot program, Vancouver revised its arts event licensing processes to increase accessibility and inclusivity for independent art communities, producers, and consumers for the temporary use of cultural spaces for, among other reasons, fundraising events intended to mitigate decreases in cultural funding and increase efforts for self-reliance within the arts and culture sector. Vancouver City Council also expressed support for the newly established Good Night Out Vancouver program established to promote safer night spaces and a more inclusive nighttime economy. Where marginal or transgressive arts and culture communities are frequently on the periphery of municipal development and cultural protection decision-making, this paper examines developments within Vancouver’s municipal legal framework and policy design that are intended to promote arts, culture, and creativity in line with Vancouver’s recently adopted Creative City Strategy in order to investigate the extent to which these developments are fostering the city’s meaningful engagement with the everyday reality of marginalized (sub)cultural communities.

Reshaping the perception of metropolitan cities: artistic, performative and cultural walks in the night

Silvia Grandi, Università di Bologna, Italy

Chiara Bernasconi, Università Cattolica di Milano, Italy & School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA

Background papers:

GRANDI S, BERNASCONI C (2020). Reshaping metropolitan cities and creative tourism through artists' vision. In Cuffy V, Bakas F V, Coetzee W (eds), Events Tourism: contemporary and critical issues of the 21st century. Routledge, London and New York, pp. 218-231.

GRANDI S (2019). La città caleidoscopica: gli itinerari urbani creativi dal turismo a forme di movimenti sociali [The kaleidoscopic city: creative urban itineraries from tourism to forms of social movements]. In Ferreira Cury M. J., Magnani E., Cassia Pereira R., (eds), Ambiente e território: abordagens e transformações sociais. Editora Madrepérola, p. 113-126.

GRANDI S., BERNASCONI C., (2011). The kaleidoscopic sense of space and place: the eyes of the artists in route planning in metropolitan cities. Abstract in Proceeding all’Annual International Conference of the Royal Geography Society, “The Geographical Imagination”, (London, 30.08-01.09.2011).

BERNASCONI C., (2010), Popular Digitization and Participation in Nuit Blanche. In Victoria Watts and Robert Gehl (eds), The Politics of Cultural Programming in Public Spaces, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Street Lighting and 'the Phantoms of the Sidewalks' in Sub-Saharan Africa

Liora Bigon, Interdisciplinary Studies, HIT – Holon Institute of Technology, Israel

Abstract: Against the background of the fragility of the post-colonial state in Africa and its failure to provide basic infrastructure for its citizens and residents of the cities with an accelerating growth rate, the issue of electric power supply will be highlighted. In particular, bottom-up decentralization of electric energy in urban Africa will be emphasized, in terms of the resilience of the space users, driven by a lack of choice. The talk will examine the anthropo-scene of Southern cities through a series of photographs by the Congolese photographer Baudoin Mouanda from the capital city of Brazzaville, entitled "The Phantoms of the Sidewalks", and through an interview with the artist. These photographs document the phenomenon of an unstructured 'urban library', in the open air, where many dozens of young people go outside of the darkened households every evening to the main streets, to complete their studies under streetlights, where rarely existing, or while using private portable lighting. We will analyze this phenomenon beyond the mainstream of the town-planning and architecture discourse that supports an institutionalized, top-down professional approach involving the material world, towards a perception that sees people themselves as infrastructure, including their motives and movements in space.

Lighting in the Urban Space, its Impact on the Urban Experience and How We Can Make it Better

Hanan Peretz, Peretz Architecture Studio, Israel

Abstract: The solar cycle defines for us the hours of activity and inactivity through light and darkness. In the story of creation, God Himself creates the light and distinguishes between day and night. The city as we know it today has no day and no night. The advent of electricity or in this context the invention of electricity by humans and the use of artificial lighting are a turning point for the functioning of the city and the life in it. The use of light in general and street lighting during the hours of darkness in particular have over the years become a major infrastructure in the fabric of components that make up the public space and the urban experience in the hours of darkness. What is the role of street lighting in the urban space? How does it function today and how can the street experience be enriched through street lighting in the dark? In order to explore possibilities for the enrichment of street lighting, we must understand the complexities that currently exist in the use of street lighting and the background to its development. The discussion about the existing and possible modes of illumination of the city and its streets ranges between two poles - between darkness, emptiness, lack of sense of security and spatial orientation on the one hand, and between glare, multiplicity of lighting to the point of confusion and damage to the urban fabric and even physical damage to humans and other natural systems, on the other hand. As the sense of sight is one of the most influential factors in the way people absorb experiences, these two poles, whether complete darkness or dazzling glare, leave the user in visual discomfort in the urban space. The relationship between darkness and light is not reciprocal. There is a contradiction, a paradox in the way we treat light and its absence. Light is perhaps the most significant component in our daily existence. It is what allows us to see and from it is derived the existence of different actions and orientation in different spaces. Light and darkness push against each other. It can be said that light and darkness are defined by mutual elimination. Light is the absence of darkness, and darkness is the absence of light. The city, as we know it today, is actually in the range between this duo of darkness-light. The modern age makes it possible to transcend the limits of darkness, and the city is bright and functional even in the hours of darkness. There is another contradiction that arises in relation to the illumination of the city in the hours of darkness. The attitude towards light as part of the infrastructure of urban space in the hours of darkness, as compared to the attitude of light as a generator of all urban features in the hours of darkness. This the point at which the city on this scale is defined through existing infrastructures, regulations, variables and ways of thinking. The systems of considerations that motivate urban dimming lights do not necessarily prioritize the main users of the city and the urbanness, the people who walk the city. The urban space is mostly illuminated by repetitive lighting near the roads. Thus, the experience of the people who walk in the city and experience it in the most intense way receives less treatment than that of the vehicles, which by the way, know how to get along very well with vehicle lighting. Street lighting, in contrast to other infrastructures such as sewage, gas, etc., is an infrastructure that directly affects the way in which the urban space is absorbed and experienced. Therefore, as planners who are in charge of the urban space, we must re-examine the existing situation. The lecture will present a wide range of options for enriching street lighting and for creating higher quality and smarter systems that will benefit the city and its urban nature in a scheme that represents standard street lighting.