Drawing on an extended case study of Chicagos Wicker Park neighborhood, this article develops the concept of neo-bohemia. Neo-bohemia suggests that traditions of cultural innovation in older city neighborhoods persist, but that these bohemian traditions intersect with economic development in new ways in the post Fordist city. Neo-bohemia supports both residential and the concentration of entertainment and new media enterprises, creating the context for the redevelopment of former industrial spaces in Chicago. Neo-bohemia complicates contemporary urban theories that stress deconcentration, and theories of urban tourism that overstate the regulated and hermetic nature of consumption spaces.

Drawing on an extended case study of Chicagos Wicker Park neighborhood, this article develops the concept of neo-bohemia that creates the context for the redevelopment of former industrial spaces in Chicago.