Claiming Your Place at Night: Turkish Dance Parties in The Netherlands

Abstract

This paper examines the proliferation and development of the Turkish clubbing scene in the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It points to how a new clubbing scene is created within the existing mainstream nightlife in order to overcome social and cultural constraints in accessibility and to meet the cultural preferences of the Dutch-Turkish consumers. Nowadays these Turkish parties are being incorporated in established and popular dance halls in the city centres. The question will be addressed as to whether Turkish party organisations and party-goers are engaged in politics of recognition by claiming their space in mainstream nightlife. Furthermore, the paper addresses how Turkish parties can offer a space for the expression of a collective cultural identity by analysing why and how Dutch-Turkish young people opt for the Turkish clubbing scene. The research findings discussed in this paper are taken from in-depth interviews with consumers and producers of Turkish parties in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, from Internet discussions, and from participant observation during several Turkish dance parties.

Keywords:

• Ethnic Minority Youth
• Clubbing
• Cultural Identity
• Politics of Recognition
• Amsterdam
• Rotterdam

Notes

1. By clubbing, I refer to a party that takes place in a club or dancehall, where in the main hall a DJ stirs the crowd to dance. My focus is restricted to the Turkish clubbing scene and this implies that the music is mostly characterised as a mix of Turkpop and R&B music. Techno-music, which is often referred to by other scholars as music typical of clubbing, is not played in these venues.

2. Besides the Turkish clubbing scene, I also study the Asian party scene and the nightlife activities of Moroccan youngsters in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Special attention is paid to the implication of the incorporation of these so-called ethno-parties in urban nightlife. Furthermore, in the PhD there is an explicit interest in how cleavages in the youth population relate to different nightlife consumption practices.

3. All names of the Turkish party-planning organisations are fictitious.

4. All quotes by respondents are translated from Dutch to English by the author.

5. In the Netherlands most youngsters start going out between the ages of 16 and 18 years.

6. In a debate organised by ‘Confetti’, Rotterdam, June 2007.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Simone Boogaarts

Simone Boogaarts is a PhD student at the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES) at the University of Amsterdam