It is an important contribution to urban studies that will be appreciated for years to come..
-Mitchell Duneier, Princeton University and CUNY Graduate Center, and author of Sidewalk
...It is theoretically knowledgeable, substantively rich, and intellectually smart.
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-Harvey Molotch, author of Where Stuff Comes From and coauthor of Urban Fortunes
...This is a smart, cogent book that thinks big and attends to details with equal virtuosity..
-Carlo Rotella, author of Good With Their Hands: Boxers, Bluesmen, and Other Characters from the Rust Belt
Some of Lloyd's best work comes in his dissection of Wicker Park's economy, which depends largely on its hip, young residents either working long hours as bartenders or waitstaff, or long hours in various digital design occupations. This is fascinating, original and deeply humane sociology at its finest;...
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-Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com, November 17, 2005
Lloyd has done an excellent job of fleshing out a postmodern bohemia...This is an insightful look at the hip neighborhoods that loom so large on the cultural radar and the role they play in the new global division of labor.-Sharon Zukin, Sociology, Brooklyn College
[Lloyd] turns over an entertainment-district economy descended from Montmartre. ... He understands... that in rock and roll and design just as in gallery art there are a few geniuses, hustlers, and genius hustlers who win the lottery and a great many exploited young workers.-Robert Christgau, from barnesandnoblereview.com
This is fascinating, original and deeply humane sociology at its finest; [Lloyd] demonstrates that in the name of freedom, young people working in allegedly relaxed service-sector jobs waste years of their lives in a whirl of drugs, alcohol and deceptively low wages.-Andrew O'Hehir, Salon