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Book
Review
The
Rise of the Creative Class and how it’s
transforming work, leisure, community and every
day life;
by Richard Florida; Basic Books, New York, N.Y.;
2002.
Richard
Florida offers a radical interpretation of economic
development in the early 21st century. He advances
the thesis that the so-called “creative class”
– artists, educators, scientists, engineers and
professionals who solve complex problems – are
the driving force behind innovation, entrepreneurial
activity and economic growth. To prosper in the
years ahead, Florida
contends,
metropolitan regions must focus on creating the
conditions favorable to attracting and retaining
members of this class.
Many
of Florida’s ideas are common parlance in
leading creative centers around the U.S., from the
San Francisco/Silicon Valley region to Austin and
the Research Triangle, but they are largely absent
from the discourse on economic development in
Virginia – especially downstate Virginia. If
Florida
is correct, then the Commonwealth faces a dicey
future. Most regions in the Old Dominion are
pursuing hopelessly antiquated strategies such as
industrial recruitment and the development of
convention centers, sports stadiums and other
high-profile real-estate projects. Even Northern
Virginia,
which is considerably more advanced in its
thinking than the Rest of Virginia, may have
peaked. Increasingly, the creative class prefers
to live and work in vibrant urban areas rather
than in high-tech, suburban “nerdistans.”
Florida’s
epiphany came in the mid-1990s when Lycos, owner
of a powerful search-engine technology coming out
of Carnegie
Mellon
University,
decamped from Pittsburgh
to Boston.
Florida,
a professor of economic development at Carnegie
Mellon, was intrigued.
Pittsburgh
seemingly had everything it took to survive in the
Creative Age: a strong corporate base, world-class
research universities and a high quality of life.
Yet the economy putters along “in a middling,
flat-line pattern.”[1]
As he dug for an explanation, he found that many
educated young people were moving to more diverse,
more exciting locales. And in a switch from the
conventional wisdom, he realized that corporations
were following the workers – not the other way
around.
According
to Florida,
the global economy is moving into a new economic
age, the “Creative Age,” which is scrambling
all the conventional rules for economic and
community development. Competitive advantage comes
increasingly from the ability to innovate -- the
capacity to develop new technologies and business
models. No longer is it sufficient to build an
industrial-era infrastructure of roads, airports,
water lines and power grids. To spur innovation
and entrepreneurial activity, Florida
argues, a region must assemble the infrastructure
of innovation, including R&D facilities,
venture capital and, most importantly, the kinds
of amenities – from biking trails to a lively
music scene – that attract creative people.
Florida
defines the Creative Class as those occupational
categories encompassing “science and
engineering, architecture and design, education,
arts, music and entertainment, whose economic
function is to create new ideas, new technology
and/or new creative content.” [2]
In addition to this super-creative core, he counts
creative professionals in business and finance,
law, health care and related fields. All told, by his reckoning, the creative
class numbers roughly 38
million Americans, or
roughly 30 percent of the work force. Among cities
with more than 1 million people, the proportion of
creative workers varies regionally from a high of
38.4 percent of the work force in metro Washington, D.C.,
to a low of 18.5 percent in Las
Vegas.
The Creative Class in
Virginia
MSAs
|
Metro
Area
|
%
Creative
|
National
|
|
Class
|
Rank
|
Washington,
D.C.
|
38.4
|
4
|
Charlottesville
|
30.3
|
51
|
Richmond
|
30.1
|
56
|
Norfolk
|
28.4
|
97
|
Roanoke
|
26.2
|
158
|
Johnson
City/Bristol
|
24.5
|
195
|
Danville
|
20.3
|
250
|
Lynchburg
|
18.0
|
261
|
|
|
|
Note:
National rank among 268 MSAs..
Source:
Creative Class, Table 13:1, ps. 237-239; ps. 335-352.
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Not
surprisingly, regions with large numbers of
scientists, engineers and other creative
professionals tend to rank among the most
innovative places in the country, create more new
businesses and be associated with
technology companies. They also tend to have the
strongest economies.
That’s
hardly surprising. Of greater interest, Florida
argues that the Creative Class brings a new set of
values to their careers and personal lives.
Contrary to the dot.com hype over bonuses and
stock options, creative workers are less entranced
by such benefits than by jobs that offer personal
challenge and growth. What a creative worker wants
most, Florida
says, is “to exercise his creativity in building
something,
to experience the whole cycle of having
ideas, putting them into action and seeing the
rewards.”
In
a related trend, the massive corporate
restructuring and downsizing of the 1980s
destroyed the compact between corporation and
employee. No longer expecting or wanting lifetime
employment, members of the Creative Class change
jobs frequently. As hyper-mobility spreads through
the economy, creative workers act like free
agents, moving laterally from company to company,
seeking more rewarding challenges and taking more
control over their careers.
Creative
workers also require more flexible schedules. In
households with two working parents, employees
need more leeway to run errands or cope with
children. Meanwhile, the nature of work itself is
changing. Notes Florida:
“Much creative work is project work and projects
tend to run in cycles, with periods of
crunch time
followed by slower periods.”
Increasingly, creative employees are seeking –
and getting -- idiosyncratic deals such as
“sculpted” job descriptions tailored to the
individual.
People
in creative occupations also tend to work more
than members of the working class or service
class. The longer hours combined with the blurring
of work and personal time create a perceived
shortage of time. People cope through a complex
interweaving of their work and personal lives,
Florida writes. “From morning to night and from
workplace to home, they intersperse bursts of work
with chunks of personal time for exercise,
errands, socializing, family time or just plain
downtime.”
The
“time famine” engenders new life strategies.
“If one cannot elongate time, perhaps one can
deepen or intensify it,”
Florida
observes. Members of the Creative Class pursue
activities that provide more intense experiences.
Increasingly, they seek to pack their lives full
of high-quality, multi-dimensional activity. They
prefer biking or rock climbing to passively
watching sports on television. They enjoy
up-close, street-level culture – cafes, sidewalk
musicians, galleries and bistros – to the formal
settings of museums and opera halls. Above all,
they crave “authentic” ambience as opposed to
the ersatz sensations of the shopping mall or a
Disney World.
This
sea change in values has become a driving force in
the geography of economic development. Successful
regions don’t achieve superior economic results
by investing in traditional infrastructure like
freeways, sports stadiums, suburban malls and
theme park-like entertainment districts.
Successful regions don’t outperform their peers
by undermining their tax bases with incentives to
lure foot-loose corporate investment. They excel
by providing what creative workers are looking
for: “abundant, high-quality amenities, an
openness to diversity of all kinds, and above all
else the opportunity to validate their identities
as creative people.”
Rather
than losing significance in the New Economy,
Florida
contends, geography is becoming more
important. Under the rules of the Creative
Economy, larger metro areas enjoy a big advantage.
People pick a region not to take a single job but
to pursue a career. They expect to change jobs
frequently, so they look for job markets conducive
to a horizontal career path in their field. In
other words, says
Florida,
people look for a “thick” labor market.
But
lifestyle can trump labor markets, as demonstrated
by the high rankings of a number of smaller cities
with universities. Creative people seek
communities that offer an experience compatible
with their priorities and values. Where people
once were willing to travel great distances to
enjoy weeklong vacations at the beach or in the
mountains, the time famine drives them to seek
recreational amenities close at hand. When they
want to take a quick break to recharge their
batteries, “a beach house or country getaway
spot doesn’t do them much good,”
Florida
says. “They require trails or parks close at
hand.”
Likewise, creative people want a vibrant nightlife
they can partake in spontaneously when time
permits -- cafes, coffee shops and small jazz
clubs – not operas, symphonies or ballets bound
by strict schedules.
Creative-minded
people also want to live in communities that are
tolerant, culturally diverse and open to
newcomers. They crave excitement, energy and the
interchange of ideas and perspectives. They relish
encountering people unlike themselves to trade
views and spar over issues. They savor fine architecture and beautiful natural views. In
particular, I would add to Florida’s
list, creative people appreciate the availability
of well designed public places, from parks to plazas, which facilitate human
interaction and serendipitous encounters.
Some
places possess these attributes; others don’t.
As a result, Florida
says, the 1990s experienced a wholesale resorting of
people among cities and regions nationwide.
Regions are polarizing between those that are
predominantly creative and economically
successful, and those that are comprised mainly of
Working Class or Service Class people. Those
regions that are bypassed by the Creative Class
face dim prospects.
Ironically,
Florida
argues, communities characterized by strong social
cohesion are often unattractive to the Creative
Class. The old social structures have their
advantages: They engender lasting relationships,
mutual respect, trust, civic-mindedness and social
stability. Commentators often wax sentimental
about those virtues, but social cohesion also can
inhibit creativity. Innovation is built upon the
interchange of ideas. The interchange of ideas is
abetted by the intermingling of diverse people
with weak
social ties, not strong ones. By definition,
strong relationships consume more time and effort
to maintain. People with weak ties can manage
larger social networks, allowing more interchange.
Says Florida:
“Weak ties are critical to the creative
environment of a city of region because they allow
for the rapid entry of new people and rapid
absorption of new ideas.”
The
bottom line, Florida
concludes, is that economic developers must pay
more attention to the people
climate than the business
climate. “Instead of subsidizing companies,
stadiums and retail centers, communities need to
be open to diversity and invest in the kinds of
lifestyle options and amenities that people really
want.”[10]
Invest in universities, which are magnets for
creative people. Support
R&D.
Build recreational amenities. Create cultural
districts. Maintain public spaces where people can
interact. Develop pedestrian-friendly town centers
filled with a diverse mix of coffee shops, cafes,
designer artist studios and renovated
office
lofts. Finally, don’t recruit businesses --
recruit artists and other culturally creative
people.
Virginia
is blessed with many assets valued by creative
people. But we’ve acquired them more by
happenstance than by design, and our political and
civic leaders are not systematically cultivating
them. Still, it’s never too late to begin. A
good first step would be to put a copy of The
Rise of the Creative Class into the hands of
every elected official, civic leader and economic
development professional across the state.
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