The Flight of the Creative Class

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The Flight of the Creative Class

Jon Linton

Richard Florida, HarperCollins, New York, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-075691-8 (pbk)

Richard Florida is the hippest urban sociologist around – not only does he have a great idea that he has parlayed into two quite good books (the one being reviewed here and its predecessor, The Rise of the Creative Class), but he has also been on The Colbert Report and more than held his own against that notoriously irreverent interviewer. Very cool. He’s also Hollywood handsome, relatively young, and, as a result of the best-seller status of his previous book, pretty well off. So, there is ample reason to hate him. But, the real question is: is all the hype justified, and is there anything to it?

Well, yes, and yes. Florida has been instrumental in bringing to our attention the importance of what he calls the creative class – those talented and innovative individuals who create new concepts, new works of art or culture, and new businesses and organizations. There are various definitions of what constitutes the creative class, but generally it comprises scientists, engineers, artists, cultural creatives, entrepreneurs, managers, professionals, technicians, and book reviewers (well, maybe not book reviewers).

Florida’s first book was all about the phenomenal rise of this creative economy.

In 1900, creative workers made up only about 10 percent of the US workforce. By 1980, that figure had risen to about 20 percent. Today, almost 40 million workers [in the US] – some 30 percent of the workforce – are employed in the creative sector. There are, in fact, more creative workers today than there are traditional blue-collar workers. The trends are similar across much of the advanced industrial world. (pp. 28-29)

Through their activities and influence, these creative individuals contribute tremendously to the quality of life in an area or region. They fuel a positive feedback cycle, where a creative cluster in a community attracts other talented individuals, who in turn draw others, and so it goes. And grows. According to Florida (and common sense) a community that can lure these creative types better than its rivals has a major competitive advantage in terms of economic development, as it will attract more business investment, more tourists, and likely have a better image and reputation as a stimulating place to visit, reside, and work in. But, a key question here is what comes first: the creative cluster or the quality of life? Do creative types generate a high quality of life? Or does the quality of life attract the creative individuals? Recognizing that the two questions are deeply interconnected, Florida is nonetheless unequivocal in his answer – fundamentally it’s the quality of life that attracts the people:

My research and other recent studies have shown that place does matter: many people choose location first and then look for jobs in those locations … We see in everyday urban life how arts, culture, and demographic diversity help to spur job creation and economic revitalization on the front end (rather than simply following behind these phenomena). Take the gentrification of inner- city neighborhoods like New York’s SoHo or San Francisco’s SoMa. What came first in these places? As any sentient observer of urban affairs can attest, these neighborhoods initially lost blue-collar jobs as factories and warehouses moved out of outmoded facilities. Artists, culturally creative people and immigrants moved in, often reclaiming the properties from ruin by way of illegal conversions and sweat equity revitalization. Gays and singles came next. Only much later – once these initial pioneering groups had increased real estate values – did families, professionals, yuppies, technology-based businesses, and retail shops follow. (pp. 44-45)

The take-away message here for municipalities: nurture and promote your arts and culture sectors, as these can be key to longer-term economic development. (In the humble opinion of this book reviewer, one of the fundamental contributions of Florida’s work has been to reinforce the link between a vibrant arts and culture sector in a community and positive economic growth and development.)

Florida has devised various measures by means of which he assesses the relative attractiveness of a community to individuals in the creative class. These include the Bohemian Index, the Gay Index, and the Talent Index (all featured in The Rise of the Creative Class). They are all ways of ranking communities in North America according to how receptive and friendly they are to diverse types of creative individuals.

Much of the foregoing is basic context for Florida’s work and was covered in his first book as well – which gets us around, at long last, to the main theme of his latest offering. In The Flight of the Creative Class, Florida takes a global look at the migration and location patterns of the creative class, and current and emerging trends. His overall thesis here is that, in the wake of post 9/11 paranoia and crackdowns on immigration, the US is losing out in the global struggle for talent. Florida has developed other indices here (for example, something he calls the Global Creativity Index, which is a composite of various measures of talent, tolerance, and technology) that show this recent trend by comparing countries against one another. Basically, new talent and creativity in the form of applicants to universities, as well as established artists, investors, and other proven creative types, are increasingly shunning the US in favour of more tolerant and accepting countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc. The last chapter of the book contains various policy suggestions for the US to regain its edge in this regard.

Frankly, for municipalities, this latter part of the book is not especially useful, beyond reinforcing the general notion that attractive communities in Canada might be increasingly viewed as locations for creative immigrants to settle. The general message of Florida’s work, though, is, as was stated before – communities that welcome members of the creative class by accepting new ideas and diversity will generally fare better than those that are seen to be close-minded and less tolerant.

The Flight of the Creative Class is strongly recommended as an overview of Florida’s ideas and how they square with current international movements of creative talent. It is a highly readable and engaging book – especially for intelligent and creative types like us. MW

From the February 2008 issue of Municipal World

Check out Jon’s bio on the Municipal World website.