What is the socio-cultural impact of underground electronic dance music scenes on the inhabitants of big Dutch cities?

In the Netherlands, the debate on nightlife has gained momentum in recent years. As more and more people live in cities, choices must be made about how to use the space in the city. Nightclubs often come under pressure when urban areas are developed while they play a key role as a meeting place for various music scenes. Research into the socio-cultural impact of music scenes is scarce, as is research into the value of the night-time economy. In order to supplement the existing knowledge on the values of music scenes and, in a broader perspective, the night-time economy, the socio-cultural impact of the underground dance scene has been investigated using mixed methods. For this study, 7 semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposefully chosen key players from the dance scenes of Rotterdam and Amsterdam. In order to supplement the qualitative results, a survey was developed that was completed by 381 inhabitants of Rotterdam. Even though especially the analysis of the quantitative data could have been done more extensively in this research, it can be concluded that the socio-cultural impact of the translocal underground dance scenes is multifaceted and mostly lies in its contributions to employment, personal development, social cohesion in - and attractiveness of - the big Dutch cities.