The New Bohemia as Urban Institution

Abstract

Bohemia, the colorful intersection of place, lifestyle, and artistic imagination, is rooted in the urban revolutions of 19th century Paris, and has proven to be a durable and transposable tradition of modernity in the nearly two centuries since. We have ideas about what living like an artist in the city should look like, and these in turn continue to powerfully shape what it does look like, culturally and materially. This cultural continuity today interacts with the structural transformation of the US economy and of American cities. Education, flexibility, and the creative capacity of high value city workers are elevated as principles of urban inequality, within and between cities, impacting new place making projects. In this case, the 21st century bohemia materializes in small and large cities around the country, serving as both a consumer amenity and an incubator of innovation in the arts and beyond. Birthed in the wrenching urban crisis wrought by postindustrial transition, neo–bohemia has now become an institutionalized feature of the urban landscape, intersecting with dominant policy and design discourses including the new urbanist and creative cities paradigms.

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