The appended code is supposed to allow reduction of the inter-word spacing in my bibliographies but it does not. Adjusting the \spaceskip in the setups for [tightspace] does not seem to make any difference. Any suggestions will be most welcome. I am using the latest beta (ConTeXt ver: 2015.11.19 19:13 MKIV beta with LuaTeX 0.85) Alan \startsetups[tightspace] \spaceskip .7\interwordspace plus .5\interwordstretch minus \interwordshrink \stopsetups \def\dostartbibitem[#1]{\startBibItem[title={#1},reference={#1}]} \def\startbibitem{\dosingleempty\dostartbibitem} \def\stopbibitem{\stopBibItem} \definedescription[BibItem][ width=broad, margin=1.5pc, indenting={no}, indentnext=no, alternative=hanging, hang=1, headcommand=\gobbleoneargument, align=right, before={\directsetup{tightspace}\bgroup\language[packed]}, after={\egroup}, ] \starttext Martin, J. 1956. \emph{Histoire du texte des phénomènes d’Aratos}. Paris. \startbibitem[Martin 1956] Martin, J. 1956. \emph{Histoire du texte des phénomènes d’Aratos}. Paris. \stopbibitem \stoptext