Pernocter.A Short Journey through the Aesthetics and Imaginaries of the Night

The night has long remained a forgotten dimension, a “terra incognita” little researched, as if left to fantasies and representations. Between insecurity and freedom, it still fascinates. Coloured by light and economic activities, it has recently become a key area of tension between individuals, groups and neighbourhoods of our cities that no longer live at the same pace. For the last twenty years, night has become part of the daytime news: holiday lightings, sleepless nights, but also light pollution, urban violence or noise pollution. We are progressively witnessing a trivialization of the night and of the night-time offer where the consumer component has become central in a context of territorial marketing and competition between cities. The public authorities, who have always sought to control it, are now interested in this fleeting and cyclical territory. In Europe, initiatives are proliferating in three main directions: improving the quality of life for residents through new services and the expansion of daytime activities, nightlife as part of territorial marketing and attractivity, and public tranquility or security. Better “councils” and “mayors of the night” have been set up in Geneva, London, Paris, New York, but also in small towns like Quimper or La Rochelle where specific public policies are being developed. The health crisis with the confinement and the return of the curfew in some countries has highlighted the importance of the night as a moment of silence but also of socializing. The energy crisis and climate change force us to think in terms of light moderation, and even to imagine a shift in summer activity towards the evening and night when conditions are more manageable. The night is now of interest to politicians, community professionals, the general public and also for human and social science research. Beyond these first nocturnal ethnographies, these contributions allow us to discover and explore various ways of spending the night for both the reader and the researcher. They allow us to understand, without completely lifting the veil, the mysteries of this fascinating space-time and the practices of its inhabitants. Exploring urban nights also means learning to manage the contradictions and paradoxes of a super-modern society and its actors: illuminating the night without killing it.