Nightlife as a source of social wellbeing, community-building and psychological mutual support after the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The nightlife sector means the economy and culture but also social wellbeing. However, whenever nightlife does get discussed, it seems always to be about licensing, regulation, crime, culture-led strategies of urban regeneration and urban benchmarking, and we still lack an appropriate understanding about the benefits of night culture beyond these topics. In this critical commentary, I wish to comment on the potential of nightlife as an efficient time–space mechanism for social well-being, community-building and multicultural understanding and even psychological mutual support especially after the Covid-19 pandemic amidst the newly emerging and still undefined world.

KEYWORDS:

• Nightlife
• social well-being
• community-building
• post-pandemic
• Europe

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (CEECIND/01171/2017; PTDC/ART-PER/32417/2017), and Centro Interdisciplinar de Ciências Sociais da Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The etymological origins of ‘nightlife’ highlights the diverse forms of leisure activities that, today, many individuals from both the Global North and South carry out during night-time hours, especially in regards to those activities developed after study and/or work hours. In this paper, the terms ‘commercial nightlife’ and ‘nightlife’ are applied indistinctively. Furthermore, this indistinctive application of both terms refers only to urban contexts.

2 In spite of the massive lockdown, the author is convinced the nighttime leisure industry will benefit from a progressive re-opening during the second half of this year 2021, although initially with strict sanitary measures.

3 In May 2021, the city of Berlin officially recognized clubs as cultural institutions following a year of campaigning from the Parliamentary Forum for Club Culture & Nightlife.

4 Here, I prefer not to provide references in order to avoid any type of ‘witch-hunt’, which would be totally contrary to my intention.

5 For economic figures, see for example: Nights from the Future. European Nightlife Professionals White Paper, published by the Eurocouncil of the Night (2018).

6 Here, it is worth mentioning that the author of this research note is fully aware about the existence of two ongoing research grants that, in some way, are closely related to the topic addressed in this research note. On the one hand, The Cultural Value Project, supported by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council for the past decade, looked into the question of why the arts and culture matter, and examined the effects that they have on the local communities of British cities. However, nightlife (I mean, the sum of dancing, partying, drinking, dining, meeting and chatting with new people, etcetera) fall beyond the scope of The Cultural Value Project. On the other hand, I must mention the HERA-NET research grant entitled ‘Night Spaces: Migration, Culture and Integration in Europe (NITE)’ led by Dr. Sara Brandellero. NITE considers material, symbolic and virtual public spaces associated with and created by migrant communities in night-time urban settings, themselves understood as important sites of crisis and regeneration, memory and heritage, community solidarity and growth. Although I have had the opportunity to follow the NITE team’s work in some online conferences and workshops, I could not find any article related to the topic of my research note, and I believe their first scientific outputs in the form of articles will probably be published after autumn 2021.

7 The Global Nighttime Recovery Plan is headed by Vibelab. For further information, please see: https://www.nighttime.org/recoveryplan/ (Accessed on 05/27/2021).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [grant number CEECIND/01171/2017; PTDC/ART-PER/32417/2017].

Notes on contributors

Jordi Nofre

Jordi Nofre is FCT Associate Research Professor in Urban Geography at the Interdisciplinary Center of Social Sciences, NOVA University of Lisbon. He conducts research on nightlife, tourism, and urban change. He is coordinator of the Lisbon-based LXNIGHTS Research Group, and is editor of Exploring Nightlife: Space, Society & Governance.