Lugares para descubrir el ocio nocturno : experiencias espaciales de adolescentes en Barcelona

In this article I will present the results of a research project about the first practices of nightlife among adolescents in Barcelona (Spain). The discovery of nightlife represents a key moment in teenagers’ lives and takes part into multiple dynamics, from the negotiation of security to the expansion of social networks, from the exploration of identity to emancipation. The research was developed in Barcelona between 2014 and 2016, using different qualitative methods. The article focuses on the importance of daily life spaces in the first practices of nightlife; more specifically, it analyses three categories of spaces that play a particularly important role: the neighbourhood, the “legitimated spaces” and the ephemeral places of the party. In the first part I will briefly introduce the research and its theoretical framework; then I present the methods employed; I will subsequently show the main findings and finally discuss the conclusions, that will underline how these spaces offer the conditions for a first autonomous experience of nightlife.