Abstract:  This article explores the reproduction of ethnified urban spaces and inequalities in an ostensibly cosmopolitan city. It does so by means of a case study of bouncers’ policing practices in the nightlife of the Danish city, Aarhus. In recent years, a substantial body of research has explored the regulatory practices of bouncers operating in the urban night-time economy. This article contributes to the study of nightlife policing by paying special attention to the ethnic governance of bouncers. More specifically, the article investigates how ethnicity is produced in bouncers’ administration of nightlife accessibility; how inclusion and exclusion are negotiated in encounters between bouncers and ethnic minority youth; and how bouncers struggle to avoid allegations of discrimination and to uphold notions of colorblind good governance, while ethnified notions of troublesome individuals continue to inform bouncers’ production of nightlife safety.

Keywords:  bouncers; cosmopolitanism; ethnicity; (in)visibility; neoliberalism; night-time economy; security governance

Published:   17 September 2014

Issue:   Vol 2, No 3 (2014): Policing Ethnicity: Between the Rhetoric of Inclusion and the Policies and Practices of Exclusion