Gwiazdzinski L., Straw W., 2018, Geographies of the night. From geographical object to Night Studies, Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana 14, 2(1), pp.9-22 (original) (raw)
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Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, 2018
Geographies of the night. This is the title of this special issue of the Bulletin of the Italian Geographical Society, which brings together twenty authors, geographers and non-geographers interested in this long neglected dimension. Following on from pioneering work at the end of the 20th century, these authors are pushing exploration further, contributing both to our knowledge of this “ephemeral and cyclical space-time” – of its “inhabitants” and their practices, of the emergence of a particular “geographical object” and a “geography of the night” – but also to the unfolding of a field of transdisciplinary research, that of “night studies,” and to the advancement of a international “night scene” bringing together a variety of actors and extending beyond the domain of academic research. Twenty international contributions allow us to enlarge this reflection to different countries (Canada, France, Italy, Madagascar, Marocco, Switzerland, etc.) on three continents (North America, Europe, Africa), with a predominance of countries from the global North. These contributions range in their concerns from representation to questions of mediation and governance, as well as critical urban exploration, tourism, mobility, youth, partying and clubbing, not to mention “mutation”. The night is subjected to the tools of geography, and geographers from here and elsewhere highlight the key issues which surround it, from perspectives concerned with economy, the environment, the social and the cultural.
Géographies de la nuit / Geographies of the night / Geografie della notte
2018
Geographies of the night. This intervention invites us to explore “geographies of the night” at multiple levels, in different contexts and through different approaches. If this project seeks to map out the geographies of a particular astronomical moment in the 24-hour cycle, it also aims to reflect on the emergence of a specific branch of the discipline, one with its own concepts, methods and tools. This is both a reflection “on” the night, “with” and “through” geography and an interrogation of geography from the perspective of night. In this article, we will begin by tracing the pressures which act upon the night and have made it a present-day concern, a preoccupation of public policy and an object of research in geography and across the social sciences and humanities. In a second movement, we will analyse research on the night within the discipline and trace the emergence of an interdisciplinary field of research: “night studies”. Finally, we will explore the possible contribution...
Introduction: Geographies of the Night
Special Issue Urban Studies, 2014
Academic research tends to overlook what happens when night falls. This special issue aims to bring the space–time of the urban night to the fore by asking how nocturnal cities are produced, used, experienced and regulated in different geographical contexts. Despite local variations and specificities important similarities and ongoing transformations are identified regarding the long-term trends in the formation of the space–times of the urban night. We have structured this special issue on the basis of four important focal points of research for studying the night: (1) changing meanings and experiences of urban darkness and nights; (2) the evolution of the night-time economy; (3) the intensification of regulation; and (4) dynamics in practices of going out. By bringing different sets of literature and theoretical perspectives together this special issue provides a relational perspective on the urban night.
Introduction: Geographies of the urban night
Urban Studies, 2014
Academic research tends to overlook what happens when night falls. This special issue aims to bring the space-time of the urban night to the fore by asking how nocturnal cities are produced, used, experienced and regulated in different geographical contexts. Despite local variations and specificities important similarities and ongoing transformations are identified regarding the long-term trends in the formation of the space-times of the urban night. We have structured this special issue on the basis of four important focal points of research for studying the night: (1) changing meanings and experiences of urban darkness and nights; (2) the evolution of the night-time economy; (3) the intensification of regulation; and (4) dynamics in practices of going out. By bringing different sets of literature and theoretical perspectives together this special issue provides a relational perspective on the urban night.
Introduction to geographies of darkness
cultural geographies, 2015
Introduction to Geographies of Darkness Light pervades space and when it does not, darkness emerges and is usually vanquished with electric illumination. The perception of light and gloom is an existential dimension of experiencing space and time. Although rhythms of light and dark play out differently according to geography, all sighted people perceive, sense, act and construe meanings of space, place and landscape according to their diverse, changing qualities of luminosity and murkiness. Despite this shared, all-pervasive aspect of human experience, geographical investigation of daylight, darkness and illumination is meagre indeed. This dearth is startling when we consider how sunlight and shadow condition the appearance of landscape, the cultural values and meanings attributed to the luminous and shadowy qualities of place, and the alignment of diverse spatial practices with nightfall and dawn, for instance. It is as if place, space and landscape are by default, conceived as being washed in a neutral daylight, rather than being dynamically conditioned by vital light and dark. This special issue focuses specifically on darkness, on how particular practices, cultural values and conceptions circulate around gloom, and have been continuously articulated and contested over time. The papers here explore different dark spaces, and endeavour to address John Jakle's complaint that 'landscape has been conceptualised primarily in terms of daytime use' i. They also elucidate how in contemporary times, darkness is being revalued in multiple ways. These reappraisals are especially pertinent because darkness has been progressively banished through what Koslofsky ii calls 'nocturnalisation', the expansion of social and economic activity into the night and the subsequent spread of illumination, a process persistently informed by religious and modernist discourses, and lasting fears about darkness. This 'colonization' iii proceeds as nightclubs extend opening hours, entertainment districts expand, all-night retail outlets multiply, and urban districts service the needs of shift workers. Because we are habituated to ubiquitous illumination, it is difficult to imagine the pervasive darkness that formerly saturated most space after nightfall and the very real perils, discomforts and inconveniences that suffused everyday life. As Roger Ekirch iv details, numerous hazards proliferated after nightfall in medieval towns, with rubbish, ditches, excrement laden streets and overhanging timbers, not to mention the footpads, murderers and robbers who lurked in the dark. No wonder householders performed the daily ritual of 'shutting in', bolting doors and windows to guard against nocturnal intrusion or that many towns organized a night watch and locked the city gates to guard against malevolent interlopers. Inside houses, rudimentary candles provided 'small patches of light amid the blackness' v , requiring endless vigilance to keep them aflame. Yet despite these unpropitious conditions, pervasive darkness also solicited the development of practical competencies. These included navigation by star-filled skies and familiarity with the moon, its phases and the ways in which it transformed landscape, with the 'changing colours and
What is nocturnal about night studies? Insights from Turin, Italy
City Culture and Society, 2025
The relation between the urban diurnal and the urban nocturnal has been famously conceptualized with the metaphor of the night as frontier. Originally proposed by Murray Melbin in 1978, the phrase suggests that the nocturnal has been gradually colonized by the capitalist logics of the day. This article contributes to provincializing night studies by postulating a nonlinear and non-dichotomous relation between the urban diurnal and nocturnal. Specifically, the article adopts the philosophical perspective of the constitutive outside, as articulated in a recent strand of contemporary urban studies, exploring the paradoxical and even contradictory generative tensions shaping the meanings, materialities and politics of the urban night. This theoretical posture is explored through the case of Turin, Italy, a city that has developed a complex tension between the diurnal and the nocturnal which cannot be interpreted simply from a dichotomistic perspective, as the metaphor of the urban frontier suggests.
“Nocturnal cities : past, present, and future”
Forum sociológico, 2023
His research has three main topics : (i) Nightlife, festivals, and tourism (ii) city branding, culture-led regeneration strategies, artwashing and commodification of the arts and, (iii) artistification, culture and artistic careers of emergent professionals. He is main founder and coordinator of the International Night Studies Network, Coordinator of the Rede de Etnografia Urbana
Urban night Introduction The Urban Night: a Space Time for Innovation and Sustainable Development
Articulo - Journal of Urban Research, 2016
L’objectif est d’examiner la nuit urbaine comme un espace-temps d’innovation à différentes échelles et dans différents contextes géographiques. Dans cet article d’introduction, je rappelle que la nuit a été souvent abordée négativement. J’examine le phénomène de colonisation de la nuit, les pressions et les tensions sur les individus, les communautés, les organisations et les quartiers de la ville à plusieurs temps. Dans la deuxième partie, je me concentre sur les innovations qui se déploient dans les villes la nuit dans différents domaines : économie, social, environnement et culture. La dernière partie, je m’intéresse aux contributions des « études sur la nuit » pour les nuits de nos villes, l’urbanisme et le développement durable. The objective of this issue of Articulo – Journal of Urban Research - is to examine the urban night as an innovative space-time on different scales and in different geographic contexts. In this introduction, I remind the reader that the night has often been approached negatively. I discuss the process of colonization of the night and the pressures and strains experienced by the individuals, communities, organizations and neighborhoods of the “polychronic city”. In the second part, I focus on the innovations unfolding in cities at night in different fields: economic, social, environmental and cultural. In the last section, I look at the possible contributions of “night studies” to our urban nights, to urban planning and sustainable development.