Symbolism and the 'free market': the regulation of alcohol and anti-social behaviour past and present

Talbot, Deborah (2014). Symbolism and the 'free market': the regulation of alcohol and anti-social behaviour past and present. In: Pickard, Sarah ed. Anti-social behaviour in Britain: Victorian and Contemporary Perspectives. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 274–284.

URL: http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/anti-social-be...

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to examine the concept of `alcohol-related disorder ́ and anti-social behaviour (ASB) in nightlife in the eighteenth century and Victorian era, alongside the reform of licensing post-1997, as a notion that reflects the broader impact of economic, social and cultural influences on nightlife. The chapter draws on legislative and policy frameworks from 1751 which demonstrate that the regulation of nightlife has, since the earliest licensing statute, been concerned with consolidating big business and marginalizing alternative or perceived unacceptable cultures and behaviours, a precedent that continue with New Labour and the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government. The argument is made that, rather than focusing on nightlife as an undifferentiated social problem, researchers should look more broadly at the cultural, spatial and regulatory barriers facing a creative, diverse and free nightlife.

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