This book examines the experiences of those dedicated drinkers at the forefront of the new night-time leisure industries that revolutionized the way we think about our city centres. Smith uses the night-time leisure economy as a lens through which to view the relationship between global consumer capital and the erosion of 'traditional' adulthood.

Keywords

Reviews

"Avoiding both cliché-ridden hysteria, and the over-ripe products of redundant theoretical silos, Oliver Smith has produced a beautifully written, carefully nuanced account of post-industrial leisure that normalises and explains the contemporary night-time economy. Read it before going to the pub." - Dick Hobbs, Professor of Sociology, University of Essex, UK

"This book is a must read for anyone wanting to make sense of the relationship between 'extended' adolescence, alcohol consumption, and the night-time economy (NTE). Based on a thorough analysis of changes and trends in the NTE, and careful ethnographic observations and interviews with young adults, this book theoretically and empirically redefines the phenomenon of 'going out' in contemporary society." - Robert Hollands, Professor of Sociology, Newcastle University, UK

"In this superb ethnographic study of Britain's commodified and consumerised night-time economy, Oliver Smith bravely ignores the disciplinary injunction to identify cultural resistance blossoming across post-crash capitalism's arid landscape. Instead he finds anxiety, half-hearted hedonism and an enduring sense of lack among a community of thirty-somethings unwilling to give up the preoccupations of youth and unable to identify anything more appealing than another weekend trawling the pubs and clubs. Smith makes excellent use of critical theory to address the pressures that bear down upon so many young people today. He treadscarefully around the piles of puke and discarded beer cans to offer a trenchant and rigorous ethnographic analysis of depressive hedonism and ideological incorporation. It is not a happy story, but it is one that everyone interested in the reality of contemporary culture must digest. I can't recommend it more highly." - Simon Winlow, Professor of Criminology, Teesside University, UK

"Something odd is happening to the adulthood stage of the life cycle; something that, for the most part, criminologists have been slow to engage with. Oliver Smith's Contemporary Adulthood and the Night-Time Economy is a notable exception. Skilfully weaving sophisticated theory and interview data, Smith provides a sharp analysis of how the young (and the not-so-young) use alcohol and the night-time leisure economy to structure identity and give meaning to their lives as they attempt to negotiate today's long march to adulthood." - Professor Keith Hayward, University of Kent, UK

Authors and Affiliations

Plymouth University, UK

Oliver Smith

About the author

Oliver Smith is a Lecturer in Criminology at Plymouth University, UK.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Contemporary Adulthood and the Night-Time Economy
Authors: Oliver Smith
Series Title: Leisure Studies in a Global Era
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137344526
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences Collection, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2014
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-34451-9Published: 22 August 2014
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-46605-4Published: 01 January 2014
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-34452-6Published: 22 July 2014
Series ISSN: 2946-3173
Series E-ISSN: 2946-3181
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 204
Topics: Crime and Society, Regional and Cultural Studies, Sociology of Sport and Leisure, Sociology, general, Youth Culture, Cultural Studies

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Authors:

Sections

Buy it now

Buying options

Other ways to access

Table of contents (11 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

About this book