A night out in the metropolis can offer a plethora of hedonistic experiences in urban spaces such as waterfront districts, shopping boulevards and cultural precincts. In stark contrast to this post-modern spectacle of contemporary nightlife are the mundane night-time activities that pervade the everyday spaces of ordinary people. Here, we are confronted with a tapestry of a different material culture—one that has evaded the lacklustre and homogeneous pattern of urban bars, pubs and clubs. This paper will illuminate the sociospatial dimensions of everyday (night)life in the neighbourhood of Toa Payoh Central, Singapore, and will demonstrate the resilience of urban informality in an increasingly formal and regulated global city like Singapore. It is contended that everyday (night)life has a significant role to play in the making of vibrant and liveable cities by helping to foster social sustainability in the forms of accessibility, tolerance, diversity and participation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CampoD.RyanB. D. (2008) The entertainment zone: unplanned nightlife and the revitalization of the American downtown, Journal of Urban Design, 13(3), pp. 291–315.
2.
Cartier-BressonH. (1999) The Mind’s Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers. New York: Aperture.
3.
CerteauM. de (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life, transl. by RendallS.Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
4.
ChangR.OngC. (2012) Moving up in life, the Singapore way: Insight looks into the state of the Singapore Dream as perceived by those reaching for it, The Straits Times, 21July.
5.
ChangT. C.HuangS. (2008) Geographies of everywhere and nowhere: place-(un)making in a world city, International Development and Planning Review, 30(3), pp. 227–247.
6.
ChattertonP.HollandsR. (2003) Urban Nightscapes: Youth Cultures, Pleasure Spaces and Corporate Power. New York: Routledge
7.
ChewM. M. (Ed.) (2009) Research on Chinese nightlife cultures and night-time economies, Chinese Sociology and Anthropology, 42(2), pp. 3–21.
8.
DempseyN.BramleyG.PowerS.BrownC. (2011) The social dimension of sustainable development: defining urban social sustainability, Sustainable Development, 19(5), pp. 289–300.
9.
DouglassM.HoK. C.OoiG. L. (2008) Globalisation, the City and Civil Society in Pacific Asia: The Social Production of Civic Spaces. London: Routledge.
10.
EdensorT. (Ed.) (2010) Geographies of Rhythm: Nature, Place, Mobilities and Bodies. Farnham: Ashgate.
11.
EldridgeA. (2010) The urban renaissance and the night-time economy: who belongs in the city at night?, in: ManziT.LucasK.Lloyd-JonesT.AllenJ. (Eds) Social Sustainability in Urban Areas: Communities, Connectivity and the Urban Fabric, pp. 183–198. Sterling, VA: Earthscan.
12.
ElsheshtawyY. (2011) The informal turn, Built Environment, 37(1), pp. 5–10.
13.
EvansW. (1938) American Photographs. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
14.
GrazianD. (2009) Urban nightlife, social capital, and the public life of cities, Sociological Forum, 24(4), pp. 908–917.
15.
HaywardK.HobbsD. (2007) Beyond the binge in ‘booze Britain’: market-led liminalization and the spectacle of binge drinking, The British Journal of Sociology, 58(3), pp. 437–456.
16.
HengC. K. (2001) Learning from Carvajal, an insignificant alley, Urban Design International, 6(3), pp. 191–200.
17.
HighmoreB. (2005) Cityscapes: Cultural Readings in the Material and Symbolic City. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
18.
HollandsR.ChattertonP. (2003) Producing nightlife in the new urban entertainment economy: corporatization, branding and market segmentation, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27(2), pp. 361–385.
HubbardP. (2011) Carnage! Coming to a town near you? Nightlife, uncivilized behaviour and the carnivalesque body, Leisure Studies, DOI: 10.1080/02614367.2011.633616.
21.
JacobsJ. (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.
22.
JenksC. (1995) Watching your step: the history and practice of the flâneur, in: JenksC. (Ed.) Visual Culture, pp. 142–160. London: Routledge.
23.
LaguerreM. S. (1994) The Informal City. New York: St Martin’s Press.
24.
LefebvreH. (2004) Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life, transl. by EldenS.MooreG.London: Continuum.
25.
LevittH. (1993) Here and There. New York: PowerHouse Books.
26.
MadanipourA. (1996) Design of Urban Space: An Inquiry into a Socio-spatial Process. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
27.
MelbinM. (1987) Night as Frontier: Colonizing the World after Dark. New York: Free Press.
28.
OngC. (2010) One shop, two trades: retailers ‘diversify’ to beat rules against subletting outdoor areas, The Straits Times, 29December.
29.
PolakitK.BoontharmD. (2008) Mobile vendors: persistence of local culture in the changing global economy of Bangkok, in: HerbeleL.OppS. (Eds) Local Sustainable Urban Development in a Globalised World, pp. 175–202. Aldershot: Ashgate.
30.
PortesA.CastellsM.BentonL. A. (Eds) (1989) The Informal Economy: Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
31.
RobertsM.EldridgeA. (2009) Planning the Night-time City. New York: Routledge.
32.
RobertsM.TurnerC. (2005) Conflicts of liveability in the 24-hour city: learning from 48 hours in the life of London’s Soho, Journal of Urban Design, 10(2), pp. 171–193.
33.
RoweD.BavintonN. (2011) Tender for the night: after-dark cultural complexities in the night-time economy, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 25(6), pp. 811–825.
34.
SassenS. (1994) The informal economy: between new developments and old regulations, The Yale Law Journal, 103(8), pp. 2289–2304.
TalbotD. (2004) Regulation and racial differentiation in the construction of night-time economies: a London case study, Urban Studies, 41(4), pp. 887–901.
38.
ThomasC. J.BromleyR. D. F. (2000) City-centre revitalisation: problems of fragmentation and fear in the evening and night-time city, Urban Studies, 37(8), pp. 1403–1429.
39.
TiesdellS.SlaterA. M. (2006) Calling time: managing activities in space and time in the evening/night-time economy, Planning Theory & Practice, 7(2), pp. 137–157.
40.
TunasD. (2008) The Spatial Economy in the Urban Informal Settlement. Delft: IFoU–Papiroz.
41.
WhyteW. H. (1980) The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Washington, DC: Conservation Foundation.
42.
WinograndG. (1999) The Man in the Crowd: The Uneasy Streets of Garry Winogrand. San Francisco, CA: Fraenkel Gallery.
43.
YeoS. J.HeeL.HengC. K. (2012) Urban informality and everyday (night) life: a field study in Singapore, International Development Planning Review, 34(4), pp. 369–390.
44.
ZukinS. (1995) The Culture of Cities. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
