Editors: Dr Jordi Nofre (NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal) and Dr Manuel García‑Ruiz (ISCTE/Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal)
1. Introduction & Theoretical Framing
The city at night has long evaded the analytical centrality granted to its daytime counterpart. Despite the profound transformations that unfold after dark— e.g., social, spatial, economic, cultural, environmental and affective, among others—the nocturnal dimension of urban life remains curiously undertheorized despite an expanding literature over the past years. What a growing number of authors term ‘nocturnal cities’ are often portrayed through reductive lenses, i.e., as sites of leisure or danger, regulation or escape, productivity or disorder. Yet these binaries fail to capture the multiplicity and complexity of urban nights across the globe.
As editors of this ambitious The Palgrave Handbook on Nocturnal Cities, we are pleased to invite scholars from the social sciences and humanities – and even from other scientific domains – from across the globe to discuss, rethink, and reflect on the nocturnal city in a provocative, courageous, and original way. We approach the nocturnal city as a multidimensional space-time of common and opposed interests, visible and non-visible conflicts, and emergent possibilities that situate nocturnal cities as (dis/utopian) drivers towards more socially inclusive, just, and egalitarian, culturally creative, innovative and vibrant, economically resilient, and environmentally sustainable urban futures amidst current uncertain and turbulent global change.
The urban night is not merely a temporal backdrop but a stage on which distinct forms of governance, sociability, consumption, care, resistance, and imagination are enacted. Nocturnal urban life reveals hidden infrastructures, exposes social asymmetries, reconfigures sensory and aesthetic experiences, and gives shape to new rhythms of belonging, labor, and surveillance.
To fully grasp our contemporary cities from the Global North, South and East – regardless of their size –, it is essential to examine how ’the night’ reshapes often complex, non-linear, multifaceted urban dynamics. A retrospective gaze that connects with the present and allows us to imagine the future allows us to conceive our nocturnal cities as lively agoras in continuous transformation where inequalities are often deepened but also contested, where infrastructures are both illuminated and neglected, and where cultural, political, and ecological tensions unfold with particular intensity. From questions of security and informality to those of identity, wellbeing, and sustainability, the urban night demands both profound analytical attention and daring (but rigorous) methodological innovation.
The Palgrave Handbook on Nocturnal Cities will bring together interdisciplinary perspectives from across the social sciences and humanities (and even beyond) to advance a comprehensive, critical, and globally informed understanding of urban life after dark. Contributions are expected to engage empirically grounded, theoretically robust, and methodologically diverse approaches to the night. This collective work aims at charting the path for a comprehensive and exciting research agenda on nocturnal cities by providing conceptual tools, comparative insights, and original frameworks that move beyond disciplinary silos and geographical hierarchies.
We welcome proposals that explore the city at night as a frontier of inquiry, as a contested terrain, and as a laboratory of urban futures. The night is not a margin but a central domain through which to rethink our often changing, uncertain, and complex urban realities, subjectivities, and (not-so?) utopic visions.
We invite chapter proposals that critically engage with the nocturnal city from across disciplines—including but not limited to sociology, anthropology, geography, architecture, psychology, literature, history, environmental humanities, public health, cultural studies, political science, economics, urban planning, performance studies, and visual arts. We welcome contributions from all world regions, and strongly encourage proposals grounded in empirical or conceptual perspectives from the Global South, Global East, and underrepresented contexts in the Global North and West.
The Palgrave Handbook on Nocturnal Cities seeks to foster an interdisciplinary and international dialogue on night-time urbanism in its many forms, and also aims to become a landmark contribution in the field and a reference work for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested in the study of cities after dark. While not exhaustive, the following themes illustrate the breadth of topics that contributors may explore:
- Temporal regimes and the governance of night-time rhythms
- Institutional innovations such as “night mayors,” planning offices, and legal frameworks
- Ecological corridors, dark infrastructure, and challenges of artificial lighting
- Maintenance systems, utilities, and sustainable energy transitions after dark
- Nightlife scenes, festivals, soundscapes, and performance cultures
- Literary poetics, narratives, and symbolic imaginaries of urban darkness
- Cultural consumption, informal markets, and sensory foodscapes
- Artistic and ritual practices grounded in nocturnal spaces
- Night work, precarious labor, and informal urban economies
- Tourism, branding, and the commodification of night-time city life
- Capital flows, creative industries, and the materialities of nocturnal capitalism
- Peripheral geographies, night markets, and spatial economies after dark
- Public health interventions, mental health care, and harm reduction strategies
- Surveillance, safety, gendered violence, and infrastructures of safe passage
- Homelessness, caregiving labor, and welfare logics at night
- Intimacy, political presence, and the ethics of shared nocturnal spaces
- LGBTQ+ experiences, dissident identities, and subcultural nightscapes
- Intergenerational dimensions of night: youth, elders, and transitions in belonging
- Parenthood, ageing, and public domesticities in night-time urbanity
- Sex work, visibility, survival economies, and practices of inclusion
Proposals addressing other critical dimensions of the nocturnal city are equally welcome, particularly those offering fresh theoretical, methodological, or empirical contributions.
2. Submission Guidelines
Submit a single Word document containing:
- Chosen part & section title
- Chapter working title and rationale (max 300 words)
- Structured abstract (250–300 words, excluding references): objectives, methodology, findings, contributions
- Author details: name, current affiliation, email, short bio (≤ 80 words; up to three authors)
3. Accepted Chapter Format
- Max. 4,500 words (including figures, tables, and bibliography)
- No more than 2 figures or tables per chapter
- Abstract ≤ 200 words and 3–6 keywords
- English, MS Word format, double-spaced
4. Timeline
| Deadline | |
| Abstract submission | 10 October 2025 |
| Acceptance notification | 1 December 2025 |
| Full chapter delivered | 1 June 2026 |
| Final revisions delivered | End July 2026 |
5. Selection Criteria
Proposals will be assessed for:
- Clarity, originality, and relevance
- Theory-building and methodological strength
- Interdisciplinary and global perspectives
- Contribution to broader academic and policy discourse
6. Submission Instructions
Send proposals to: jnofre[at]fcsh.unl.pt & manuel_ruiz{at}iscte-iul.pt
Subject line: “Submission – The Palgrave Handbook on Nocturnal Cities”
Early clarifications about fit or thematic suggestions are welcome and encouraged.
Manuel Garcia-Ruiz 