As it seems: Producing and consuming nightlife in the postindustrial city.

Author(s): 
Ocejo RE.
Published: 
2009
Publisher: 
Sociological Forum
Volume: 
24
Issue: 
3
Page(s): 
720-725

Abstract

Reviews the book, "On the make: The hustle of urban nightlife" by David Grazian (2008). Focusing on postindustrial Philadelphia, the authors offers one such case of how contemporary nightlife works and what it means for its producers and consumers. For this work, however, the author narrows his focus to the various tactics of deception and techniques of impression management that make up and take place in the popular nightlife venues of urban downtowns. The author examines two general levels of nightlife hustles. The first consists of the aesthetic and operational production of nightlife spaces and the marketing of nightlife culture. The author addresses the sampling issues by arguing that Penn students make up a substantial number of Philadelphias college population and that many of them are young versions of the type of urban consumer who populates its downtown nightlife venues. It would be interesting to have another social group in nightlife spaces depicted here besides undergraduate students, but there is also the issue of relying on written narratives and focus groups to examine nightlife experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
Loading