LIST OF PUBLICATIONS (January 2025 – January 2026)

12 publications in 12 months. Not bad. At LXNIGHTS, we continue to open new lines of research and delve deeper into those we have been investigating for some time. This year, 2026, will be crucial in deciding the future of the LXNIGHTS Research Group, whose trajectory, as you can see from this list of publications from the last year as a mere example, has been exciting since its founding in July 20214. This year, 2026, will be crucial in deciding the future of LNXIGHTS Research Group, whose trajectory, as you can see from this list of publications from the last year as a mere example, has been exciting since its founding in July 20214. Here follows the list of our latest publications over the past 12 months:

  1. Aramayona, B. (2025). Darkening informalised workers: moral geographies and in/visibilisation of transnational migrants in Spain. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 49(4), 892-911. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13328
  2. Costa, G., & Garcia-Ruiz, M. (2025). The Taxi Driver And The City. (Post)Pandemic Navigations Of Lisbon. An Ethnography Approach Of The Night Appropriation. In A. Bednarczyk, K. Kajdanek, & R. Carvalho, R. (Eds), Crisis, conflict and celebration. Ethnographic studies of European Cities (pp.57-87). Palgrave Macmillan.
  3. De Dominicis, C., Garcia-Ruiz, M., & Freitas, M. R. de (2026). Música ao vivo e transformação urbana em Lisboa: entre resistência cultural e turistificação. Plataforma Barómetro Social https://www.barometro.com.pt/2026/01/06/musica-ao-vivo-e-transformacao-urbana-em-lisboa-entre-resistencia-cultural-e-turistificacao/
  4. Garcia-Ruiz, Manuel. Light festivals in Portugal: nightlife, tourism, and culture”. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 24, (1), 135-148. https://doi.org/10.25145/j.pasos.2026.24.009
  5. Garcia-Ruiz, M. (2026). Lights that gather: Attendance motivations and emotions in light festivals as night-time practices”. Sociológica Mexico, 41, 49-89. https://doi.org/10.24275/OZDB1321
  6. Mazorra, A., Nofre, J. & García-Ruiz, M. (2025). Gentrification and touristification in Lavapiés: Causes and consequences of a unique interplay in today’s Southern Europe. Epub ahead of print. Journal of Urban Affairs. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2025.2473956
  7. Mazorra, Á., Nofre, J., & Garcia-Ruiz, M. (2025). The brand-making of Madrid Global City from the old historic neighborhood of Lavapiés: a diachronic genealogy of urban policies. European Planning Studies, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2025.2537339
  8. Nofre, J., Garcia-Ruiz, M., & Galavielle, J. (2025). An exploratory ethnography of the new tourist nights in Bairro Alto, Lisbon. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure. Epub ahead of print. http://doi.org/ 10.1007/s41978-025-00186-4
  9. Nofre, J., Martins, J. C., Garcia-Ruiz, M. & Teixeira Costa, G. (2025). From gentrification to touristification in the night of a former red-light district: Impacts on tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Cais do Sodré, Lisbon. In M. Gravari-Barbas & S. Guinard (Eds.), Handbook of Tourism and Gentrification (pp. 446-463). Routledge.
  10. Nofre, J., Mazorra, Á., & Garcia-Ruiz, M. (2026). The implementation of the 15-minute city model in Barcelona and the decline of the city’s nightlife industry. Sociológica México, 41, 235-274. https://doi.org/10.24275/QMXA8757
  11. Puig Guisado, J. (2025). Yo confieso, nosotros denunciamos: culpa y revelación en la poética nocturna de Octavio Paz.Literatura: teoría, historia, crítica27(2). https://doi.org/10.15446/lthc.v27n2.119524
  12. Vale Pires, C., Garcia-Ruiz, M., Couto Gomes, F., & Nofre, J. (2025). A century of queerness after dark: A socio-historical review of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer nights in Lisbon (1920-2020). Sexualities, 28(4), 1686-1704. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607241287425

The CFP for the 7th International Conference on Night Studies is open!

Throughout history, the night has been a threshold: a horizon where new possibilities emerge, where sensory and affective intensities amplify, and where urban and social forms acquire different shapes. In contemporary contexts, these horizons multiply, they stretch across cities illuminated by cultural events, across informal and precarious territories, across digital and planetary infrastructures, and across communities negotiating visibility, safety, and belonging.To study the night today is to explore how dimensions of space, time, mobility, and inequality shift after dark. Night-time economies intersect with tourism; dark-sky movements intersect with biodiversity protection; nightlife intersects with governance; nocturnal labour intersects with global rhythms of production and care. These multilayered dimensions reveal the complexity of the night as an object of inquiry and as a lived, contested, and negotiated space.

At the same time, the atmospheres of the night—its lights, sounds, temperatures, densities, flows, and affects—shape how urban environments are sensed and inhabited. Atmospheric conditions produce attachments and aversions; they generate feelings of wonder, safety, discomfort, or belonging; and they influence how people move, gather, celebrate, resist, or work. Artistic interventions, design practices, and technological infrastructures play a key role in producing and modulating these atmospheres.

ICNS.LX7 invites contributions that investigate these horizons, dimensions, and atmospheres of the night; that interrogate how nocturnal futures are imagined and built; and that expand the conceptual, methodological, and practical possibilities of Night Studies.

Themes of Interest

We welcome submissions engaging critically with the nocturnal world. Suggested themes include, but are not limited to:

Historical and Emerging Horizons
  • Genealogies of nocturnal cultures and practices
  • Changing conceptions of the night across centuries
  • Reconfigurations of night-time imaginaries in global contexts
Nocturnal Dimensions: Urban, Social, and Cultural
  • Nightlife geographies, hospitality, and cultural ecologies
  • Inequalities, policing, and contested urban spaces after dark
  • Gendered, racialised, and LGBTQI+ nightscapes
  • Night-time mobilities, infrastructures, and accessibility
Atmospheres, Senses, and Aesthetics
  • Light, colour, sound, smell, temperature, density
  • Sensory and affective geographies of the night
  • Artistic interventions, installations, media art, and performance
  • Visual cultures, film, photography, and nocturnal imaginaries
Tourism, Events and Night-time Economies
  • Festivals, illuminated events, and night-time tourism
  • Place branding, creativity, and culture-led regeneration
  • Impact of tourism flows on the night and vice versa
Ecologies, Environments, and Planetary Nights
  • Environmental impacts of artificial lighting
  • Dark-sky initiatives and astro-tourism
  • Nocturnal biodiversity, cohabitation, and ecosystems
Governance, Policy, and Planning
  • Night-time governance models and comparative approaches
  • Public policy, zoning, licensing, and regulation
  • Safety, justice, inclusion and right to the night
Methods & Methodologies
  • Ethnography, rhythmanalysis, sensory and mobile methods
  • Data, digital infrastructures, and mapping the night
  • Ethics and challenges of conducting research after dark

Presentation Formats

We welcome proposals for:

  • Oral Presentations (15 min + discussion)
  • Panels / Roundtables (3–4 coordinated papers)
  • Workshops / Methodological Labs
  • Short Films

Important Dates

  • Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 March 2026
  • Notification of Acceptance: 30 April 2026
  • Conference Dates: 7–9 October 2026 (Online)

Submission Guidelines

  • Length of abstract: 250–300 words
  • Keywords: 4–6
  • Languages: English
  • Submitted thru this form

Submissions will be evaluated based on originality, clarity, relevance, and contribution to the interdisciplinary field of Night Studies.

About ICNS

The International Conference on Night Studies is an international platform dedicated to advancing frontier research, artistic practice, and professional knowledge related to the global urban night.

ICNS fosters dialogue between academia, civic actors, artists, activists, and policy-makers, strengthening international cooperation and expanding Night Studies as a field of inquiry.

ICNS.LX7 will be held fully online from 7–9 October 2026.

Organised by the International Night Studies Network (INSN) and LXNIGHTS Research Group, with institutional support from collaborating universities and research centres.

LXNIGHTS proposes the creation of two Observatories of the Nightlife Industry

Complete Technical Document: Proposal for the Creation of the National Observatory of the Nightlife Industry in Spain (proposal sent on March 10 to the Secretariat of Tourism of the Government of Spain)

Complete Technical Document: Proposal for the Creation of the Observatory of the Nightlife Industry in Barcelona (proposal sent on April 25th to the Barcelona City Council).

These are two proposals whose conception, design and drafting I have coordinated, with the participation of Manuel García Ruiz , coordinator of the International Night Studies Network and the collaboration of Joaquim Boadas de Quintana , General Secretary of the nightlife employers hashtag#SpainNightlife and Fecasarm (in Catalonia).

The idea is the same: to develop and implement an automated and periodically updated system for the extraction, collection, compilation, analysis and publication of statistical data (also under web GIS visualization) and qualitative data, and the creation and monitoring of indicators on the nightlife industry. Under rigorous scalability and replicability criteria, the architecture of the proposal as well as the nature of the statistical information sources can be adapted to local, regional or national scales.

These proposals have been rejected for public funding both by the Secretariat of Tourism (to mention the extraordinary kindness with which we were dealt with) and by the Commissioner of the Night of the Barcelona City Council (also with a kindness rare in local areas in this corner of the Iberian Peninsula).

Both prosals are derived from the original article in vol. 63, nº 2 of the Spanish Open Access journal “Cuadernos Geográficos”, 2024.

Proposta_ObservatoriOciNocturnBarcelona Propuesta_ObservatorioOcioNocturno_DocumentoTecnico

The Call for Abstracts for the 6th International Conference on Night Studies is now open!!

The conference, which is a partnership between LXNIGHTS Research Group and the International Night Studies Network (INSN), returns to its original format (online) to encourage the participation of our nightologist friends from the Global South as well as exploited researchers working in allegedly prestigious institutions with “ethical values” in the Global North. Follow the International Night Studies Network and check the conference’s website (https://icnslx.com/) in order not to miss any information or key dates of the conference. Huge thanks Manuel García Ruiz for your invaluable work and professionalism in organizing yet another annual edition of our favorite conference :)) 

Abstract deadline is due to April 15, 2025.

Conference dates: 8-10 October 2025

Our ERC Advanced Grant proposal NIGHT-15 , led by our coordinator Dr Jordi Nofre as PI, has been rejected. It’s frustrating but we don’t give up.

 

 

As usual, the European Research Council has rejected NIGHT-15 “Unveiling the potential of the multiple values of nightlife in building the 15-minute city in Europe: A comparative and intersectional approach” [SEP. 211057564], an ERC Advanced Grant proposal led by our coordinator Dr Jordi Nofre as PI. It’s frustrating but we don’t give up. Bad times for the social and human sciences in Europe; the ERC has selected to finance pro-militarist or even revisionist-nationalist “research” projects (among other projects of dubious scientific rigor).

Our coordinator Dr Jordi Nofre reflects on the need to design the nocturnal 15-minute city

The coordinator of the LXNIGHTS research group opens a new line of research not yet explored and which is crucial for the future of European cities. This short article, which has been published in Urban Geography (2024), is also the origin of further articles and research project proposals, as well as the intervention of our coordinator in the session on “The 15-minute city and the night-time dimension” of the Cities After Dark URBAN ACT network held on 6 December 2024. We hope you like this article and that it inspires you to work on this new line of research!!:))

Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2024.2383522

 

What a terrific couple of years!! LXNIGHTS scientific production 2022-2023

In these two years we have continued to obtain negative evaluations of the research projects submitted both at national (FCT) and European level (COST Actions). But even so, we continue to work on what we like the most: the night.

  • Nofre, J. & Garcia-Ruiz, M. (2023). Nightlife Studies: Past, present and future. DanceCult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, 15(1): 93-112. https://doi.org/10.12801/1947-5403.2023.15.01.05
  • Nofre, J., Martins, J.C., Garcia-Ruiz, M., & Teixeira Costa, G. (2023). Una aproximación geográfica a los impactos de la turistificación del ocio nocturno en el barrio de Cais do Sodré, Lisboa. Estudios Geográficos, 84 (294), e129. https://doi.org/10.3989/estgeogr.2023135.135
  • Nofre, J., Garcia-Ruiz, M., & Martins, J. C. (2023). The Biosecuritization of the Tourist City: Some Reflections from and about Lisbon Nightlife. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 22(2), 992–1014. https://doi.org/10.7202/1100524ar
  • Nofre, J. (2023). Nightlife as source of social wellbeing, community-building and psychological mutual support after COVID-19 pandemic. Annals of Leisure Research, 26(4), 505-513. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2021.1964991
  • Nofre, J., Garcia-Ruiz, M. & Martins, J. C. (2023). “Demonizing the Nightlife: The ‘Pandemic Panic’ and Youth Responses in Portugal and Spain.” In M. Ryan (Ed.)., COVID-19: Pandemic pitfalls and possibilities, pp. 91-104 London: Routledge.
  • Nofre, J. & Garcia-Ruiz, M. (2023). The urban ecological transition and the future of Europe’s nightlife industry. World Leisure Journal, 65(3), 327-342. https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2022.2162112
  • Nofre, J., Martins, J. C., Garcia-Ruiz, M. & Teixeira Costa, G. (2022). Cuando la turistificación mató ‘la noche’ de Cais do Sodré (Lisboa) [When touristification killed ‘the night’ of Cais do Sodré (Lisbon)]. Ábaco – Revista de cultura y ciencias sociales, 112-113: 82-91. Available at: https://revista-abaco.es/abaco-112-113-event-places-espacios-de-ocio-y-lugares-memorables/
  • Teixeira Costa, G., Raposo, O., Martins, J. C., Garcia-Ruiz, M. & Nofre, J. (2022). Lazer noturno e resistências juvenis em tempos de (pós)pandemia: O caso dos jovens do Bar Antù em Lisboa [Nightlife and youth resistance in times of the (post)pandemic: The case of young people at Bar Antù in Lisbon]. Antropolítica – Revista Contemporânea de Antropologia, 54(3): 118-142. https://periodicos.uff.br/antropolitica/article/view/54935/33206
  • Nofre, J. (2022). Desafiando as noites de exclusão social: A diversão noturna como mecanismo innovador para a construção de comunidades mais inclusivas e sustentáveis [Challenging the nights of social exclusion: Nightlife as an innovative mechanism for building more inclusive and sustainable communities]. In Cardoso, A. D. & Vaz, D. (eds.)., Cidades, escalas e transações, pp. 168-192. Famalicão, Portugal:  Edições Húmus.

Looking forward to the outcome of the evaluation of our COST Action proposal “Next Generation Nights in Europe”

Next Generations Nights in Europe is a COST Action proposal coordinated by Jordi Nofre (NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal). The Action aims to examine how our European nightlife industry should be in the future, and, crucially, how it can contribute to promoting and achieving the goals defined by the recently-launched The New European Bauhaus Initiative .In this sense, the Action’s objectives are (i) Advancing the theoretical and conceptual framework of nightlife studies; (ii) Collaborative design of innovative methodologies and new analytical tools; and (iii) Raising awareness and dissemination of more inclusive, egalitarian, resilient, and sustainable nightlife. By mobilizing so-called Quadruple Helix Stakeholder Engagement Strategy, Next Generation Nights in Europe will bring together nightlife industry stakeholders, local communities, cultural associations, and academic researchers to generate (i) top-quality research outputs of high impact; (ii) valuable stakeholders-oriented outputs; (iii) innovative policy-oriented knowledge; and (iv) community agency actions towards the promotion of more inclusive, egalitarian, resilient, sustainable, and competitive nightlife industry in Europe. At scientific level, the Action will develop a new research agenda in the emerging interdisciplinary subfield of ‘Nightlife Studies’. At industry level, the Action intends to strengthen the capacity of the nightlife industry to align with the goals defined by the recently-launched The New Bauhaus Initiative, and to enhance and foster new technical skills to design and implement successful resilience strategies. Finally, at policy and community levels, the Action will provide crucial insights to making the nightlife industry more competitive and a privileged place of creativity and social innovation.

Hope we will soon have further news on the final evaluation of the proposal!!

 

Three new publications: The best way to end the year 2022 and start 2023

 

The LXNIGHTS team continues to publish the results of both our amazing research on Lisbon’s nightlife,  and and also opening up new lines of research. Further publications will follow in the coming months. Stay tuned!

  1. Nofre, J., Garcia-Ruiz, M. & Martins, J. C. (2023). “Demonizing the Nightlife: The ‘Pandemic Panic’ and Youth Responses in Portugal and Spain.” In M. Ryan (Ed.)., COVID-19: Pandemic pitfalls and possibilities, pp. 91-104 London: Routledge.

  1. Nofre, J. & Garcia-Ruiz, M. The urban ecological transition and the future of Europe’s nightlife industry. World Leisure Journal, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2022.2162112

  1. Nofre, J., Martins, J. C., Garcia-Ruiz, M. & Teixeira Costa, G. “Cuando la turistificación mató ‘la noche’ de Cais do Sodré (Lisboa)”. Ábaco – Revista de cultura y ciencias sociales, 112-113: 82-91.

  1. Teixeira Costa, G., Raposo, O., Martins, J. C., Garcia-Ruiz, M. & Nofre, J. (2022). Lazer noturno e resistências juvenis em tempos de (pós)pandemia: O caso dos jovens do Bar Antù em Lisboa. Antropolítica – Revista Contemporânea de Antropologia, 54(3): 118-142. https://periodicos.uff.br/antropolitica/article/view/54935/33206

The new official LXNIGHTS site is here: Welcome!

The migration of the www.lxnights.pt server led to the loss of the website. To give us more stability, we have decided to reactivate our Hypotheses.org blog. This marks the beginning of a new era in the dissemination of our activity with the aim of reinforcing our strategy of transfer knowledge, establishing new arenas of public debate and empowering local communities for safer, more inclusive, egalitarian, ecological and competitive nights.

New publication on the liminal nightlife governance in Lisbon

LXNIGHTS launches a new publication!! :))) This is a new publication based on an ongoing ethnography started in 2010 in the old harbor neighborhood of Cais do Sodré, in downtown Lisbon. This article aims to analyze how the neoliberalization of the night in Lisbon has led to the emergence of some critical challenges for the governance of the “Nocturnal Tourist CIty”.

Full Reference: Nofre, J. (2020). Geografias da governança liminar da noite lisboeta. In Remoaldo, P. C., Caldeira, M. J., Teles, V., Scalabrini, E. & Rio Fernandes, J. A. (Eds), Livro de Actas do XII Congresso da Geografia Portuguesa “Geografias de Transição para a Sustentabilidade”, pp. 290-297. Guimaraes, Portugal: Universidade do Minho. ISBN: 978-989-98857

Paper_Nofre_XIICongGeoPT

 

 

 

 

 

 

A vida nocturna, uma prioridade de Estado em tempos de pós-pandemia

Sendo a vida nocturna central na indústria do turismo em Lisboa, é precisamente neste ponto que surge a grande preocupação partilhada entre diferentes actores da noite lisboeta: Pode o sector do lazer nocturno sobreviver aos efeitos económicos da pandemia sem uma política pública dedicada ao sector

Para ler o Artigo completo: https://www.publico.pt/2020/04/25/p3/cronica/vida-nocturna-prioridade-estado-tempos-pospandemia-1913716

Call For Book Chapters – “The production of urban ambiances for tourist consumption in the contemporary city”

Call for chapters for an edited volume to be submitted to Routledge’s Ambiences and Atmospheres Series or Routledge Advances in Tourism and Anthropology Series

Editors: Iñigo Sánchez (Universidade Nova de Lisboa); Daniel Malet-Calvo (ISCTE, University Institute of Lisbon); Daniel Paiva (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

This book seeks to analyze the impact of tourism on the urban environment, focusing on the concept of “ambiance” as a tool to explore the physical regeneration and sensory transformation of contemporary touristic places.

Tourism-led urban regeneration initiatives have proliferated in cities across the globe, in what some authors call a process of touristification (Sequera and Nofre, 2018). The production of urban ambiances that cater to the tourists’ desire to experience the life and culture of the city has been a significant part of this process. Some authors have noted that the transformation of historic neighborhoods into thematic parks for tourism consumption, which often imply the loss of local population, along with traditional modes of social behavior and vernacular cultural practices, are some of the negative consequences of tourism, which are often expressed in the public discourse making reference to the loss of the “authenticity” and “real feel” of urban places (Zukin 2010).

In this book, we promote a critical approach to urban ambiances to question the touristified city. How do tourism and city development affect the lived ambiances in the urban context? How do sensory experiences participate in creating particular urban ambiances and places for tourist consumption? What is the role of atmospheric production in relation to the physical regeneration and marketing of contemporary touristic places? Which social actors participate globally and locally in the everyday (re)production and consumption of these ambiances of tourism?

We invite papers that explore a variety of different approaches, questions and methodologies to study the production of urban ambiances for tourist consumption in the contemporary city, including, but not limited to:

– The role of the senses in the production of ambiances for tourist consumption
– Sensory and atmospheric design in touristified shops, markets, or public space
– The experience economy in tourism spaces
– Everyday perceptions of tourism-led urban transformation
– Exclusions, marginality, and contestations of touristified ambiances
– Public debates on the authenticity/inauthenticity of the ambiances of tourism
– The role of identity and the past in the production of ambiances for tourist consumption
– Creativity and the arts in the production of ambiances for tourist consumption

We intend this collection to bring together a diverse group of scholars and case studies to present a global perspective on the production of urban ambiances for tourist consumption in urban settings. We welcome contributions from across the globe which work with ambiances from different perspectives.

The volume will be composed of 8000-word chapters (including footnotes and references), an Introduction by the editors and an Afterword.

– Deadline for submission of abstracts (300-400 words) and bionotes (100 words): 15 March 2020
– Notification of acceptance: 31 March 2020
– Book manuscript submission: 31 April 2020
– Book contracted: September 2020
– First Book chapter draft: 31 December 2020
– Book manuscript submission: March 2021

Initial expressions of interest, enquiries and/or abstracts should be submitted to editors Iñigo Sánchez (isanchez@fcsh.unl.pt), Daniel Paiva (daniel.paiva@campus.ul.pt) and Daniel Malet Calvo (Daniel.Malet@iscte-iul.pt)

LISBON NIGHTLIFE COMMISSION: Documento Técnico em Aberto

Após dois anos, continuamos sem resposta da CML sobre a nossa propos de  iniciativa municipal para uma governança participativa da noite lisboeta “Lisbon Nightlife Commission”. Nesse sentido, a coordenação do lxnights decidiu disponibilizar em aberto o documento técnico para avançar através da autoorganização dos diferentes actores locais (residentes, comerciantes e organizações sociais).

LisbonNightlifeCommission