Raphael Schwegmann (Ph.D Student)

Place is a concept that is central to geographical thinking. Today, for example, cities are in strong competition for attention, people and investments. In order to differentiate one place from another, planners, developers and politicians increasingly focus on establishing the city as a brand and turn it into a landscape of consumption. This marketization of urban space and time finds expression in the night-time economy as markets – within which economic decisions, discourses and practices take place – follow the contours of day and night. Since nightscapes are conditioned by the interplay between actors, things, practices and discourses, it is the relationship between these elements that makes night.

My research project explores the concept of place as it stands in connection with night and economy. Under the broad banner of cultural economic geography I seek to develop a theoretical framework to explain how the ‘rhythms of the night’ take place, how they are (re)produced and performed. In sum, my project is located theoretically on the borderlands between economic geography, cultural studies and sociology. The upcoming agenda tries to demonstrate that a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between place, night and economy can be achieved.