Peer-reviewed
How and Why "Bobos" Became French
"Bobo" is short for "bohemian bourgeois." David Brooks coined the term in his book, Bobos in Paradise (2000), where he defined bobos as upper-middle class individuals who espouse liberal politics and who eschew conspicuous consumption. This article examines why use of the term has become widespread in France and has almost disappeared in the United States, despite its American origins. Analysis of representations of bobos in popular media and in interviews with Parisians living in "Boboland" indicates that the relative success of the term in France can be attributed to the fact that the bourgeois part of the definition is more important than the bohemian part, the fact that the term "bourgeois" is more readily understood in France than in the United States, and especially, the inaptness of Bourdieusian notions of cultural capital in the United States and their centrality to the definition of Bobo
Article, 2016