Putting leisure to work : city image and representations of nightlife

Increasingly ubiquitous references to night-time economy within urban revitalisation agendas mark the concept as a standard component in a globally circulating 'post-industrial city' script. The merit of the concept rests upon an assumed capacity for diverse and vibrant nightlife to contribute to urban quality of life and city marketability. Its attraction to cities seeking to expand the profitability and utility of the spectacular landscapes of consumption established along waterfront and within inner-city locales reclaimed from post-industrial disuse are readily apparent. However, only certain kinds of nightlife convey the prerequisite cultural sophistication necessary for making a 'correct' contribution to the desired city image. Consequently, nightlife is cast as a site of problematic behaviour and nightlife policy settings aimed at shifting the dominant cultures of night-specific consumption become implicated in demarcating the boundaries of appropriate activity. This paper examines these themes with respect to Newcastle, Australia. Through an analysis of the representations of nightlife cultures in local policy and planning, this paper argues that a significant contributor to the sense of crisis permeating Newcastle's after-dark urban culture has been the entanglement of nightlife in urban renewal and city re-imaging processes.