Urban Nightlife Social Capital and the Public Life of Cities
Sociologists and urban scholars emphasize how nightlife establishments contribute to the social
capital and public life of cities. In the interests of tempering this line of argument, I suggest three
generalizable empirical findings that provide grounds for skepticism on this score: (1) the racial and
class barriers to participation imposed by urban nightlife enterprises; (2) the normalization of gender
differences and the routine harassment of women within such scenes; and (3) the lack of inclusiveness
surrounding local nightlife in urban neighborhood communities. These findings suggest that nightlife
scenes may function more efficiently as generators of bonding rather than bridging social capital