Vol. 15 No. 29 (2025): Situare il sapere: sfide epistemologiche e questioni di metodo tra nord e sud
Monographic Section

Provincializzare gli studi sulla notte: l’in/formalità del divertimento notturno torinese

PDF
  • Enrico Petrilli
Enrico Petrilli
Università degli Studi di Torino, Italia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/cambio-17660

Published 2025-11-03

Keywords

  • nightlife,
  • night-time economy,
  • informality,
  • Torino,
  • Southern Theory

How to Cite

Petrilli, E. (2025). Provincializzare gli studi sulla notte: l’in/formalità del divertimento notturno torinese. Cambio. Rivista Sulle Trasformazioni Sociali, 15(29), 119–135. https://doi.org/10.36253/cambio-17660

Copyright (c) 2025 Enrico Petrilli

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Night studies is an interdisciplinary field of research that has gained increasing international recognition over the last decade. This article aims to provincialize night studies, taking up the call of southern criminology and southern urban critique to legitimize theoretical contributions from the Global South and to promote epistemic dialogue between different centers and peripheries of the global knowledge system. The first part of the article critically examines the dominant gaze of this field, highlighting its lack of critical engagement with the Eurocentric connotations that underpin it and its endorsement of a notion of nightlife that is functional to post-industrial urban regeneration processes. The resulting lack of attention in spatially, socially, and culturally marginal nocturnal phenomena is challenged by adopting in/formality as a theoretical len that broadens the visual field of night studies. The second part of the essay analyses Turin’s nightlife through the in/formality frame, moving beyond the conventional binary categories that structure Western understanding of nightlife (underground vs mainstream; free parties vs clubbing, etc.). The reconstruction of more than thirty years of nocturnal in/formality – across both informal gatherings (from late-20th-century squats and raves to contemporary gatherings of immigrant groups and unauthorized parties in public parks) and commercial venues (from the nightlife districts of the 1990s to the multifunctional venues of the 2020s) – demonstrates that informality constitutes a valuable resource for Turin’s nightlife, despite being systematically undermined by urban security policies and excluded from the city’s official narratives.

PDF

References

  1. Albanese R. (2021), Il diritto privato alle prese con la movida: disciplina delle immissioni, risarcimento del danno non patrimoniale, allocazione delle esternalità, in «Responsabilità civile e previdenza», 6, 1959-1981.
  2. AlSayyad N. (2004), Urban informality as a ‘‘new’’ way of life, in Roy A., AlSayyad N. (cur.), Urban informality: transnational perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia, Oxford: Lexington Books, 7-30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781978740235.ch-1
  3. Aramayona B. (2025), ‘Darkening’ informalized workers: Moral Geographies and the In/Visibilization of Transnational Migrants in Spain, in «International Journal of Urban and Regional Research», 49, 4, 892-911. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13328
  4. Aramayona B., Garcìa-Sànchez R. (2019), Decoding middle-class protest against lowcost nocturnal tourism in Madrid, in «Journal of Policy Research in Tourism Leisure and Events», 11, 3, 380-393. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2019.1584627
  5. Aramayona B., Guarneros-Meza V. (2023), The In/formal Nocturnal City”: Updating a research agenda on nightlife studies from a Southern European perspective, in «Urban Studies», 61, 3, 589-603. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980231188512
  6. Aramayona B., Romòn J., Gòmez-Ullate J., et al. (2020), Geografìas de la Ciudad Nocturna: Anàlisis comparativo y aplicado del ocio nocturno joven el Madrid, Barcelona y Lisboa, Madrid: Centro Reina Sofìa sobre Adolescencia y Juventud.
  7. Bagnasco A. (1986), Torino. Un profilo sociologico, Torino: Einaudi.
  8. Banks N., Lombard M., Mitlin D. (2020), Urban informality as a site of critical analysis, in: «The Journal of Development Studies», 56, 2, 223–238. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1577384
  9. Bayat A. (2004), Globalization and the politics of the informal in the Global South, in Roy A., AlSayyad N. (cur.), Urban informality: transnational perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia, Oxford: Lexington Books, 79-102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781978740235.ch-4
  10. Beccaria F., Rolando S., Petrilli E., Arcieri L. (2022), Tactics of Altered Consumption: Young People’s Drinking Choices in the Italian Movida, in «Italian Sociological Review», 12, 1, 65-85.
  11. Bentivogli C. (2008), Il servizio di taxi e di noleggio con conducente dopo la riforma Bersani: un’indagine sulle principali città italiane, in «Questioni di Economia e Finanza», 24, 1-29.
  12. Berzano L., Gallini R., Genova C. (2002), Liberi tutti: centri sociali e case occupate a Torino, Torino, Ananke.
  13. Bottà, G. (2020), Deindustrialisation and popular music: punk and ‘post-punk’ in Manchester, Düsseldorf, Torino, and Tampere, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
  14. Bottà G., Petrilli E. (2023), Nocturnal urban imaginaries: the rise and fall of Turin as a 24-hour party city, in «Forum Sociológico», 43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/sociologico.11869
  15. Brandellero S., Kenny A., Pardue D. (2022), Night stories: urban narratives of migrant lives in Europe, in «Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture», 13, 1, 3-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/cjmc_00051_2
  16. Brandellero S., Krakowska K., Padure D. (2025), Urban Nightlife and Contested Spaces, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048558759
  17. Carrington K., Hogg R., Sozzo M. (2016), Southern criminology, in «British Journal of Criminology», 56, 1, 1-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azv083
  18. Chakrabarty D. (2000), Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  19. Chappatte A., Freitag U., Lafi N. (2017), The City and its Margins, New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315171715-1
  20. Chiodelli F. (2021), Moving beyond informality-of-need and informality-of-desire: insights from a southern (European) perspective, in «Planning Theory», 20, 4, 390-394. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14730952211032026
  21. Connell R. (2007), Southern Theory: The Global Dynamics of Knowledge in the Social Science, Sydney: Allen & Unwin. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22459/AHR.44.2008.04
  22. Crivello S. (2009), Torino di notte: politiche urbane, consumo e dinamiche spaziali, in «Archivio di studi urbani e regionali», 95. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3280/ASUR2009-095006
  23. Crivello S. (2018), I Murazzi del Po: dinamiche e trasformazioni del waterfront torinese negli ultimi quarant’anni, in Capello C., Semi G. (cur.), Torino. Un profilo etnografico, Milano: Meltemi, 49-68.
  24. Cuzzocrea V., Cois E., Bertoni F. (2023) Se non qui, dove? Città, giovani e appartenenze, Milano: EGEA.
  25. De Soto H. (2000), The mystery of capital: Why capitalism triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else, New York: Basic Books.
  26. DEA Tribe (1996), Mind In. La danza è il germe dell’idea, si muove meglio quando il tamburo è di libero pensiero, in Natella A., Tinari S. (cur.), Rave off: scintille di pubblico disordine: il movimento dei party illegali fuori dalle discoteche, tra contagio sociale e repressione, Roma: Castelvecchi, 31-40.
  27. Edensor T. (2015), The gloomy city: Rethinking the relationship between light and dark, in «Urban Studies», 52, 3, 422-438. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098013504009
  28. Experientia (2020), Cultura locale sulla sicurezza urbana. Modelli comportamentali e aree di opportunità, report di ricerca.
  29. FIPE (2013), Le opportunità della movida. Andare oltre la deriva circense di centri e luoghi storici delle città italiane, report di ricerca.
  30. Gallan B., Gibson C. (2011), New dawn or new dusk? Beyond the binary of day and night, in «Environment and Planning A», 43, 2509-2515. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1068/a44386
  31. Goldberg M. M. (1941), A qualification of the marginal man theory, in «American Sociological Review» 6, 1, 52-58. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2086343
  32. Hadfield P. (2015), The Night-Time City. Four Modes of Exclusion: Reflections on the Urban Studies Special Collection, in «Urban Studies», 52, 3, 606-616. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098014552934
  33. Hall P., Pfeiffer U. (2000), Urban future 21: A global agenda for 21st century cities, London: E&FN Spon.
  34. Hart K. (1973), Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana, in «Modern African Studies», 11(1), pp. 61-89. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00008089
  35. Hollands R. (2023), Beyond the neoliberal creative city. Critique and alternatives in the urban cultural economy, Bristol: Bristol University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781529233124.001.0001
  36. La Rocca M. (2018), LGBTQ – una lettura della gentrification in un brand di Torino: il Quadrilatero, in Capello C., Semi G. (cur.), Torino. Un profilo etnografico, Milano: Meltemi, 179-200
  37. Lawhon M. (2020), Making urban theory: learning and unlearning through Southern cities, Abingdon: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429326141-8
  38. Lawhon M., Truelove Y. (2020), Disambiguating the southern urban critique: Propositions, pathways and possibilities for a more global urban studies, in «Urban Studies», 57, 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098019829412
  39. Lewis O. (1959), Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty, New York: Basic Books.
  40. Lewis O. (1966), La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty, New York: Random House.
  41. Lombard M., Horn P. (2024), Urban informality: an introduction, Bristol: Bristol University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.56687/9781529219197
  42. MacLean S., Moore D. (2014), “Hyped up”: Assemblages of alcohol, excitement and violence for outer-suburban young adults in the inner-city at night, in «The International Journal of Drug Policy», 25, 378-385. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.02.006
  43. Melbin M. (1988), Le frontiere della notte, Milano: Edizioni di Comunità.
  44. Manella G., Giordano E., Rimondi T., Crozat D. (2021), Tra consumo e rischio: L’ambivalenza della vita di notte tra gli studenti di Montpellier e di Bologna, in «Sociologia urbana e rurale», 126, 97-117. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3280/SUR2021-126006
  45. Nofre J. (2011), Youth Policies, Social Sanitation, and Contested Suburban Nightscapes, in Perrone C., Manella G., Tripodi L. (cur.), Everyday Life in the Segmented City, Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 261-281. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1047-0042(2011)0000011015
  46. Nofre J. (2021), The touristification of nightlife: some theoretical notes, in «Urban Geography», 42, 10, 1552-1561. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1855002
  47. Nofre J., Martins J.C., Vaz D., et al. (2020), Governança liminar na noite lisboeta, in «Fórum Sociológico», 37, 39-48. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/sociologico.9266
  48. Nofre J., Garcia Ruiz M. (2023), Nightlife studies: Past, present and future, in «Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture», 15, 1, 93-112. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12801/1947-5403.2023.15.01.05
  49. OPGA ITB-CNR (2018), Aggregazioni giovanili e movide a Roma nei quartieri di San Lorenzo e Ponte Milvio, report di ricerca.
  50. Pagliassotti M. (2012), Chi comanda Torino, Roma: Castelvecchi RX.
  51. Pardue D., Kenny A., Young K. (2023), Sonic signatures: Music, migration and the city at night, Chicago: Intellect. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.3485536
  52. Park R. (1928), Human Migration and the Marginal Man, in «American Journal of Sociology», 33, 881-893. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/214592
  53. Parker S. (2004), Urban Theory and the Urban Experience, Londra: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203471784
  54. Parnell S., Robinson J. (2012), (Re)theorizing cities from the global south: Looking beyond neoliberalism, in «Urban Geography», 33, 4, 593-617. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.33.4.593
  55. Perlman J. (1976), The Myth of Marginality: Urban Poverty and Politics in Rio de Janeiro, Berkeley: University of California Press.
  56. Perlman J. (2005), The Myth of Marginality Revisited: The Case of Favelas in Rio de Janeiro, in Hanley L., Ruble B., Tulchin J. (cur.), Becoming Global and the New Poverty of Cities, Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center, 9-53.
  57. Petrilli E. (2022), «si scrive Torino, si legge far west» – Teoria e critica della colonizzazione notturna torinese, in Bertoni F., Caroselli A., Sterchele L. (cur.), Le strade della teppa – Etnografia sociale e politica delle culture di strada, Roma: Red Star Press, 115-141.
  58. Petrilli E. (2023), Né centro né periferia. Decentrare la movida o decentrare lo sguardo?, in Iannello A., Griseri P. (cur.), Periferie - Barriere nelle città, Milano: FrancoAngeli, 206-233.
  59. Petrilli E. (2024), Diffrangere la (mala)movida: rappresentazioni e materialità del degrado, in «Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa», 17, 1, 43-66.
  60. Petrilli E., Stefanizzi S. (2022), Il controllo della movida: la parola al popolo della notte torinese, in «Autonomie Locali e Servizi Sociali», 45, 1, 177-194.
  61. Petrilli E., Biagi F. (2024), Critique of everyday life of the night: Young people’s re-appropriation of Turin’s eveningificated nightlife, in «Cities», 154. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2024.105402
  62. Petrilli E., Vanolo A. (2025), What is nocturnal about night studies? Insights from Turin, Italy, in «City, Culture and Society», 40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2024.100617
  63. Petrillo A. (2013), Peripherein: pensare diversamente la periferia, Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  64. Pitch T. (2013), Contro il decoro. L’uso politico della pubblica decenza, Roma-Bari: Laterza.
  65. Pottie-Sherman Y., Hiebert D. (2015), Authenticity with a bang: exploring suburban culture and migration through the new phenomenon of the Richmond night market, in «Urban Studies», 52, 3, 538-554. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098013510954
  66. Robinson J. (2006), Ordinary Cities, Londra: Routledge.
  67. Robinson J. (2015), Comparative urbanism: new geographies and cultures of theorizing the urban, in «International Journal of Urban and Regional Research», 40, 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12273
  68. Roy A. (2004), Transnational trespassings: The geopolitics of urban informality, in Roy A., AlSayyad N. (cur.), Urban informality: transnational perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia, Oxford: Lexington Books, 289-317. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781978740235.ch-11
  69. Roy A. (2005), Urban informality: Toward an epistemology of planning, in «Journal of the American Planning Association», 71, 147-158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360508976689
  70. Roy A. (2009), The 21st-Century Metropolis: New Geographies of Theory, in «Regional Studies», 43, 6, 819-830. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00343400701809665
  71. Schivelbusch W. (1994), Luce: Storia dell’illuminazione artificiale nel secolo XIX, Torino: Pratiche Editrice.
  72. Segre S. (2007), Simmel e la scuola di Chicago, in Mele V. (cur.), Le forme del moderno: attualità di Georg Simmel, Milano: FrancoAngeli, 107-114.
  73. Selmini R., Nobili G.G. (2008) La questione giovanile. Nuove forme di controllo nelle occasioni di divertimento, in «Autonomie locali e servizi sociali», V, pp. 353–366.
  74. Semi G. (2004), Il quartiere che (si) distingue. Un caso di “gentrification” a Torino, in «Studi culturali», 1, 1, 83-108.
  75. Servillo L., Montanini M., Mangione E., Postiglione M., Grasso G. (2023), Vivere, convivere, far vivere la notte a Torino, report di ricerca.
  76. Shaw R. (2015), Night as fragmenting frontier: Understanding the night that remains in an era of 24/7, in «Geography Compass», 9, 637-647. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12250
  77. Shaw R. (2018), The Nocturnal City, Abingdon: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315560090
  78. Sheppard E., Leitner H., Maringanti A. (2013), Provincializing global urbanism: A manifesto, in «Urban Geography», 34, 7, 893-900. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2013.807977
  79. Simmel G. (1989), Sociologia, Milano: Comunità.
  80. Stonequist E. (1937), The Marginal Man, New York: Russell and Russell.
  81. Threadgold S., Farrugia D., Coffey J. (2021), Affective labour and class distinction in the night-time economy, in «The Sociological Review», 69, 5, 1013-1028. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261211006329
  82. Van Liempt I., Van Aalst I., Schwanen T. (2015), Introduction: Geographies of the urban night, in «Urban Studies», 52, 3, 407-421. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098014552933
  83. Vanolo A. (2015), The Fordist and the creative city: Evolution and resilience in Turin, Italy, in «City, Culture and Society», 6, 3, 69-74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2015.01.003
  84. Vegliò S. (2021), Postcolonizing planetary urbanization: Aníbal Quijano and an alternative genealogy of the urban, in «International Journal of Urban and Regional Research», 45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13024
  85. Wallerstein I. (1976), Semi-Peripheral Countries and the Contemporary World Crisis, in «Theory and Society», 3, 4, 461-483. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00161293
  86. Yeo S., Heng C., (2014), An (extra) ordinary night out: Urban informality, social sustainability and the night-time economy, in «Urban studies», 51, 4, 712–726. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098013489743
  87. Yeo S., Ho K., Heng C. (2016), Rethinking spatial planning for urban conviviality and social diversity: A study of nightlife in a Singapore public housing estate neighbourhood, in «Town Planning Review», 87, 4, 379-399. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.2016.26
  88. Yeo S. (2019), Urban informality and the city at night, in Banerjee T., Loukaitou-Sideris A. (cur.), The new companion to urban design, New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203731932-17
  89. Yeo S. (2020), Right to the city (at night), in Mehta V., Palazzo D. (cur.), Companion to public space, New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351002189-15
  90. Wilkinson S. (2018), Young People, Alcohol and Suburban Nightscapes, in Nofre J., Eldrige A. (cur.), Exploring Nightlife: Space, Society & Governance, Londra: Rowman & Atkinson, 114-128. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9798881812324.ch-007
  91. Wilkinson S., Wilkinson C. (2017), Night-life and young people’s atmospheric mobilities, in «Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal», 3, 77-96.