Lloyd, Richard Douglas

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: University of Chicago, Ph.D., 2002.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B351811, Nashville, TN 37235-1811. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, assistant professor of sociology.

WRITINGS:

Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City (nonfiction), Routledge (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to books, including Deciphering the Global: Its Scales, Spaces and Subjects, edited by Saskia Sassen, Routledge (New York, NY), 2006; andEncyclopedia of Sociology, edited by George Ritzer, Blackwell (Oxford, England), 2006. Contributor to periodicals, including Journal of Urban Affairs andCity and Community.

SIDELIGHTS:

Richard Douglas Lloyd relates the history of the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, in his Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City. While the book does focus on the specific neighborhood of Wicker Park, the author also draws wider sociological conclusions from his case study. Wicker Park was once home to many European immigrants, particularly the Polish. During the 1960s, it saw a new wave of immigration by Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. The neighborhood began to take on an artsy, trendy character during the 1980s and 1990s. Areas such as Wicker Park have a flavor of bohemianism, which once signified nonconformity, rebellion, and a sense of alienation. In modern times, however, the attitudes that were once considered nonconformist are now what many employers are looking for in order to build a flexible workforce that can compete in a global market. Lloyd's book is a "friendly debunking" of false bohemianism, according to Harold Henderson in Planning.

Reviewing Neo-Bohemia for In These Times, Chris Barsanti found that it had "valuable insights," but stated that the book's "analysis of hipster trends and attitudes is limited by its charming innocence." APublishers Weekly reviewer praised Lloyd's research, especially his ability to make his subjects come to life and to show why the people in Wicker Park and similar neighborhoods are willing to trade high salaries for a lifestyle they find romantic. Lloyd shows how such people have developed their own set of social codes, and his book "gives their evolution a wealth of nuanced human detail," observed the Publishers Weeklywriter, who concluded that this book possesses "unusual depth."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Planning, February, 2006, Harold Henderson, review of Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City, p. 64.

Publishers Weekly, August 29, 2005, review ofNeo-Bohemia, p. 50.

ONLINE

In These Times,http://www.inthesetimes.com/ (November 10, 2005), Chris Barsanti, review of Neo-Bohemia.

Vanderbilt University Department of Sociology Web site,http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/ (April 21, 2006), biographical information about Richard Douglas Lloyd.