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'Alive After Five': Constructing the Neoliberal Night in Newcastle upon Tyne

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Robert Shaw

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Abstract

The development of the ‘night-time economy’ in the UK through the 1990s has been associated with neoliberal urban governance. Academics have, however, begun to question the use and the scope of the concept ‘neoliberalism’. In this paper, I identify two common approaches to studying neoliberalism, one exploring neoliberalism as a series of policy networks, the other exploring neoliberalism as the governance of subjectivities. I argue that to understand the urban night, we need to explore both these senses of ‘neoliberalism’. As a case study, I take the ‘Alive After Five’ project, organised by the Business Improvement District in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which sought to extend shopping hours in order to encourage more people to use the city at night. Drawing from Actor-Network-Theory, I explore the planning, the translation, and the practice of this new project. In doing so, I explore the on-going nature and influence of neoliberal policy on the urban night in the UK.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Shaw R

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Urban Studies

Year: 2015

Volume: 52

Issue: 3

Pages: 456-470

Print publication date: 01/02/2015

Online publication date: 24/09/2013

Acceptance date: 01/11/2012

Date deposited: 07/09/2015

ISSN (print): 0042-0980

ISSN (electronic): 1360-063X

Publisher: Sage

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042098013504008

DOI: 10.1177/0042098013504008

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