Doing gender, doing safety? Young adults’ production of safety on a night out

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which young adults produce a sense of safety in pubs and clubs. Despite considerable anxiety around issues pertaining to safety and violence in the night-time economy, there is little consideration of how young adults themselves feel about their safety on a night out, or how they achieve a sense of safety in a seemingly ‘risky’ social space. Drawing on mixed-methods research conducted in Melbourne, Australia, in this article I consider the strategies that young adults used to feel safe on a night out. I argue that feeling ‘safe’ is something that is actively produced through the use of these strategies, as well as providing an avenue for ‘doing’ gender.

Resumen

Este artículo analiza las formas en que lxs jóvenes adultxs producen un sentido de seguridad en los bares y clubes. A pesar de la ansiedad en torno a los temas relacionados con la seguridad y la violencia en la economía de la noche, hay poca consideración sobre cómo lxs jóvenes adultxs mismxs se sienten acerca de su seguridad en su salida nocturna, o cómo logran un sentido de seguridad en un espacio social aparentemente “riesgoso”. Basándose en métodos de investigación mixtos llevados a cabo en Melbourne, Australia, en este artículo considero las estrategias que lxs jóvenes adultxs utilizan para sentirse segurxs en sus salidas nocturnas. Sostengo que el sentirse “segurxs” es algo que a veces se produce activamente a través del uso de estas estrategias, al tiempo de proveer una vía para “ejercer” el género.

摘要

本文探讨年轻成年人在酒吧和俱乐部中生产安全感的方式。儘管有关夜间经济中的安全及暴力，存在着大量的焦虑，但却鲜少考量年轻成年人如何在夜间活动中感知自身安全、抑或他们如何在一个看似“危险”的社会空间中获得安全感。我运用在澳大利亚墨尔本进行的混合方法研究，于本文中考量年轻成年人在夜间活动时用以感到安全的策略。我主张，感到“安全”是藉由运用这些策略积极进行生产之物，并提供了“从事”性别之道。

Keywords:

• Safety
• night-time economy
• gender performance
• masculinity
• femininity
• licensed venues

Palabras calves:

• Seguridad
• economía nocturna
• performance de género
• masculinidad
• feminidad
• locales autorizados

关键词:

• 安全
• 夜间经济
• 性别展演
• 男性气概
• 女性气质
• 拥有许可证之营业场所

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my continued thanks to Professor Alison Young and Dr Natalia Hanley for their guidance with this work. I also thank Dr Dave McDonald for his sage publishing advice, and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and encouraging feedback. An earlier version of this work was presented at the 2014 Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Conference, Sydney, Australia.

Notes

1. Lockout provisions entail preventing licensed venues from admitting new patrons after a set time.

2. Focus ‘groups’ with one participant were held when other participants failed to turn up. These are still referred to as ‘focus groups’ in order to avoid confusion with the interview component of this research.