ancient cities

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Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.
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Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
15:435–54.
Di s c o t h e q u e
Discotheque is a word built by the combination of
δίσκος—dískos (disk) and θήκη—théke (box, chest,
tomb), both of ancient Greek origin. The -théke
suffix has been used in a variety of contexts and
languages to signify the physical place in the city,
where one particular function is performed or
where one kind of object is stored: for example,
Apotheke (German for pharmacy), bibliothèque
(French for library), emeroteca (Italian for printed
media archive), videoteca (Italian for video rental
shop). Discotheque is the physical place “where
disks (i.e., records) are.”
Definition
Currently the word is not so commonly used, and
the abbreviation disco or the term club is preferred
to refer to the same kind of physical place.
The word was first coined in France and it is
connected to a historical era: During the Nazi
occupation of Paris in World War II, the live performance
of jazz (“degenerate” music) was banned
from all clubs. Parisian youth were able to get
around the prohibition by setting up illegal dancing
places in cellars on the left bank of the river
Seine, where people danced to music from record
players. People began referring to this kind of
place as discothèque.
From this short semantic and historical introduction
to the term, it is possible to underline
certain features of the discotheque:
• Urban
• Based on the storage and use of a certain kind of
music support (record) and on the performance
of a certain kind of practice (dancing to recorded
music)
Discotheque
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• Located in a closed, secluded physical space,
usually apt to contain a certain number of
people and limiting the emission of noise to the
surroundings
• Connected to the expression of a political
dissent, alternative, or resistance
The discotheque as a physical space reproduces
some of the traits of city life: anonymity and density,
social distance, and spatial closeness are all
urban features that are brought to the excess on a
dance floor. Simultaneously, the discotheque offers
also a subversion of these same urban traits, first
of all through an “excess of sociability” (e.g.,
dancing, touching, hugging), which contests the
notion of urban Blasiertheit and indifference
described by Georg Simmel, and celebrates unity,
love, and community. Second, the discotheque
challenges the people’s daytime identity based on
their professional, economic, social, and cultural
status and destroys social boundaries, typical of
the regulated and controlled daytime urban life. It
allows the creation of a temporary alternative
nighttime identity, which can be later maintained
or not, in a manner similar to the carnivalesque as
described by Mikhail Bakhtin.
The discotheque also redefines the way a city
functions, shifting centers and peripheries, modifying
social and spatial boundaries, and turning the
emphasis on production to an emphasis on
consumption.
Sometimes illegalities, ranging from squatting to
drug dealing, may concentrate in and around discotheques,
in connection to the habits of certain
scenes and subcultures. This has brought up issues
of social control involving door selection, bouncers,
the use of security cameras, and even dedicated legislation
(concerning, for instance, age limits, opening
hours, licensing, and freedom of assembly).
Dance Music
Music played in discotheques is determined on one
side by the music industry and on the other by the
choices and practices of local subcultures and
scenes. In this regard, it shares with many other
urban cultural expressions an intrinsic tension
between a mainstream and an underground.
Many more or less lasting music styles (with
their corollary of dance moves, performing artists,