This chapter considers how nightlife intimacy manifests itself in contexts of casual contact and anonymity—that is, dancing crowds. Although partygoers express desires for belonging to be a simple, open, and easy thing, they nonetheless avoid explicit discussion of who belongs and how they do. The chapter describes this slippery solidarity as a sort of liquidarity, a blend of loose stranger-sociability and vague belonging. Under conditions of liquidarity, participants sustain a vague sense of social belonging, recognition, and intimacy while also enjoying the advantages of anonymity, fluidity, and familiar but light social contact. This fluid togetherness comes with some problems, however, which the chapter explores through ambivalence.
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