Bobo (society)

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Bobo is a neologism , oxymoron and acronym , as the abbreviation is made up of the words bourgeois and bohémien .

The term "Bobo" was published in 2000, the popular science book Bobos in Paradise by the columnists of the New York Times David Brooks coined the calls himself a Bobo. Accordingly, it originally referred to the US upper class at the end of the 1990s, the “conservatives in jeans” and “capitalists of the counterculture”.

“'Bobos' is the name David Brooks gave to the new elite of the information age. The Bobo lifestyle brings together what was previously considered incompatible: wealth and rebellion, professional success and a non-conformist attitude, the thinking of the hippies and the entrepreneurial spirit of the yuppies . The 'bourgeois bohemian ' is a new type who lives idealistically, cultivates a gentle materialism , is correct and creative at the same time and increasingly shapes our social, cultural and political life. Brooks paints a funny and accurate picture of the power and the quirks of the new upper class . "

- David Brooks : The Bobos. The lifestyle of the new elite. Blurb.

The term “Bobos” is associated with the accusation that their apparent participation in the life of the copied scenes and subcultures, due to their significantly higher purchasing power, leads to a rapid rise in rents and thus to the displacement of the original residents. The Bobos would thus act as the spearhead of accelerated gentrification . In addition to the - economically positive - appreciation of the residential substance, wealthy, socially homogeneous city quarters are often formed, from which the previously typical ways of life for the quarter have completely disappeared.

Examples of the use of the term

In 2007 Guillaume Paoli wrote about Kastanienallee in Berlin , which had experienced an almost complete exchange of residents in the previous ten years: "A swarm of bobsleighs is as devastating for a city quarter as a tourist invasion is for exotic countries."

In Vienna the upscale area around the Naschmarkt , the MuseumsQuartier , the Spittelberg , the Karmeliterviertel and other parts of the inner districts ( Mariahilf , Neubau , Josefstadt and Alsergrund ) are known as “Bobostan”.

With Les Bobos  (from the album Rouge Sang , 2006), the chanteur Renaud represents a portrait of this social class.

On the album Code B by Bela B. the song Bobotanz is about Bobos.

Some prominent people, such as Carla Bruni , are Bobos by their own declaration.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tobias Dürr: Clairvoyant snapshot . In: Die Zeit 18/2001.
  2. ↑ Angela Hohmann: The revolt as a pose . In: taz , June 30, 2001.
  3. ↑ Guillaume Paoli : Welcome to Bobocity . In: Scheinschlag - Berliner Stadtzeitung.
  4. ↑ Erich Kocina: "New building: Vienna's test laboratory for the weird" Die Presse from June 12, 2015
  5. ^ The Telegraph : First Lady no longer 'feels Left-wing' .