Liminal governance in the Lisbon night

Abstract

The expansion and commodification of nightlife in the central areas of Lisbon over recent years have involved some critical and unwanted social, spatial, and urban governance impacts, as well as the worsening of community livability during nighttime hours. Taking the former harbor neighborhood of Cais do Sodre in Lisbon as a case study, this paper examines the range of nightlife-related regulations, standards and laws approved over the past few years and implemented at local and national level regarding nighttime leisure. The paper will argue that public-led interplay between the privatization and liminality of public safety in nightlife districts and the (neo)liberalization of the opening hours regulation are at the basis of the liminal governance of nightlife in Lisbon.