Research Study – Nightlife, nuisance and safety in four English towns/cities, with a specific focus on lap-dancing.

I’ve just started working at the University of Kent and am involved in a study which ultimately seeks to uncover the public’s opinions on nightlife in their local area. What does this have to do with the sex industry, you might ask? Well, there’s a specific focus on the perceived and real impacts caused by lap-dancing clubs.

We’re interested in this because policy has been formulated to control lap-dancing clubs despite there being a lack of academic evidence which uncovers what your ‘average person’ thinks about them in the area. Thus, we want to get the ‘quiet voices’ rather than the more obvious Radical feminist and religious voices which have assisted in policy formation so far.

So, if you run a business or live in Maidstone, Kent, Lincoln, Newcastle or Brighton we would love you to check out our survey at http://www.survey.kent.ac.uk/nightlife

For anyone who hasn’t heard of me, my name is Billie and I’ve spent a number of years looking at the sex industry, firstly at the impact policy chance had on sex workers in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and then I moved onto the lap-dancing industry, looking at how this area has changed in recent times – in Scotland.

Although I myself consider the sex industry to be a form of labour, the purpose of this study is to find out everyone’s views, no matter what they are in relation to all forms of nightlife….we are interested in discovering if people perceive or experience any more or less problems with lap-dancing venues in comparison to other places that are open at night. Thus, I’m using this post to simply spread the word, and would like to thank the lovely Douglas Fox for allowing me to do so. I urge all you readers to help us out and spread the word about the study. The findings will be available at the beginning of next year and I would be delighted to share them.

Thank you for reading!

Billie