UMass Boston

Sociology of Nightlife

Course #: SOCIOL 312, Class #: 14117, Section #: 01

Description

This course examines nightlife as a critical site for understanding contemporary social life. Far from mere entertainment, nightlife spaces serve as laboratories for social experimentation, venues for identity work, and stages for the performance of power, status, and belonging. Drawing from classic and contemporary research in sociology and applied fields such as urban planning and public health, we will examine how diverse nightlife settings¿from local underground scenes to global party destinations¿are organized, regulated, and contested. Throughout the course, we will pay close attention to how these after-dark social worlds reflect, reproduce, and challenge broader societal inequalities.

Prerequisites

SOCIOL 101