The Creative City Richard Florida - American urbanist/economic geographer/celebrity · Came up with idea 'creative class' and concerned with clustering of firms and industries · Argued a human capital approach as people (workers and consumers) that keep firm together rather than necessarily capital and ideas . Maybe then there is a creative capital here, he wrote rise of the Creative Class (2002), a new language of how businesses will work · Creative class were needed by city or region in order to grow economically after the turn of the century in the new globalised world, creative people are the drivers of growth and need attracting and training to get on top The creative class: · People who create meaningful new forms (Florida 2003) · First, a super-creative core of people: scientists/engineers/academics/poets/artists/designers/architects etc who can influence opinions in society · Can create good that can be transported and sold - either physical products or music/film/cultural production · Then there are creative professionals who work in knowledge based industries e.g. health care/IT/financial services/consultancy ... · Often highly educated with degrees and are creative in problem solving · 35% of US workforce were considered part of the creative class although everyone is intrinsically creative · Successful cities are those that can attract creative people as they move to places that are innovative, cool and bohemian - jobs follow people (not the other way around) · 3 Ts that attract people: Technology, Talent, Tolerance Critiques: o Talent: university degree of above, increase amount of people you need education to attract people o Technology: innovation indexes and concentration of high technology firms will attract people in who then encourage more firms to use these people o Tolerance: low barriers to entry to creative jobs, number of LGBT, bohemian index (writers/dancers/directors/musicians/actors etc) . Without the 3 Ts places will not be successful, cities should restructure their economies and environment to attract the creative class, much like companies have done . Many cities took this formula step by step to act on Florida's ideas and aim to attract young people • Causation or correlation? o Mistaken correlation instead of causation as Florida doesn't provide evidence for cause or link for creativity and economic growth o He describes changes in cities very well but cant prove that they create economic growth and assuming that because they happen together that they influence each other o Doesn't analyse it specifically · The term class as part of creative class
o Evokes an analytical idea as class is a social construct as working practices and conditioned are shared o Class should usually mean oppressed group by capitalist owners and working class who have a desire to change their working conditions so they have unions to change things for the better through shared means of production o Florida's definition of class says they are just a group and less revolutionary - so using term class in a different way o He argues if you have a creative class then there is a