 | |
 View Larger |
The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life By Richard Florida ( Basic Books )
Release Date: 2003-12-24
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $16.95
Price: $11.53
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|  Add to Cart |
|
|
Product Description
The national bestseller that defines a new economic class and shows how it is key to the future of our cities. The Washington Monthly 2002 Annual Political Book Award Winner The Rise of the Creative Class gives us a provocative new way to think about why we live as we do today-and where we might be headed. Weaving storytelling with masses of new and updated research, Richard Florida traces the fundamental theme that runs through a host of seemingly unrelated changes in American society: the growing role of creativity in our economy. Just as William Whyte's 1956 classic The Organization Man showed how the organizational ethos of that age permeated every aspect of life, Florida describes a society in which the creative ethos is increasingly dominant. Millions of us are beginning to work and live much as creative types like artists and scientists always have-with the result that our values and tastes, our personal relationships, our choices of where to live, and even our sense and use of time are changing. Leading the shift are the nearly 38 million Americans in many diverse fields who create for a living--the Creative Class. The Rise of the Creative Class chronicles the ongoing sea of change in people's choices and attitudes, and shows not only what's happening but also how it stems from a fundamental economic change. The Creative Class now comprises more than thirty percent of the entire workforce. Their choices have already had a huge economic impact. In the future they will determine how the workplace is organized, what companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and even which cities will thrive or wither.
|
|
 Interesting topic but tough to read ( edbholdings )
This book was recommended to me by an acquaintance a few weeks ago...I'm glad they mentioned it.
The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life (Paperback) by Richard Florida is an informative book that covers A LOT of ground and has A LOT of data....but not as much "information" as I would have expected. Let me explain.
The premise of this book is that society today is that a new Creative Class exists and is driving the way we live today. Florida uses this creative class to explain why societal changes and patterns of living as well as why some cities are more attractive than others (e.g., Silicon Valley vs Oklahoma City).
The question behind much of the research for the book is:
How do we decide where to live and work? What really matters to us in making this kind of life decision? How has this changed - and why?
This is an interesting question...and one that Florida tries to answer throughout the book by using statistics, quotes from other authors and a good deal of words.
The first 3/4's of the book is dedicated to describing the Creative Class, how they live and work and why they are different from their 'parents'. There is a ton of data and a lot of time is spent by Florida quoting research, arguing against other theorists and using statistics to "make his case" that the Creative Class is the most important class of our time. During this portion of the book, Florida makes the argument that there is a strong correlation between those cities/regions that are more tolerant and the number of creative class works that live and work in the area.
One interesting section of the book describes the changing work environment that is making it possible for people to set their own schedules, work from home and be much less constrained by the old '8 to 5' mentality that has been a part of American business for so long.
The last quarter of the book describes how cities and regions have developed themselves into a magnet for the creative class. Florida states that in order for a city (or region) to become a 'creative class' magnet, they must have the "3T's of Economic Development"...Technology, Talent and Tolerance. A brief description of each follows.
* Technology - a city/region much have the technological infrastructure in place to fuel a creative and entrepreneurial culture.
* Talent - A city/region must have a talented and highly educated workforce
* Tolerance - A city/region much have a high tolerance level and not try to force people to 'fit in'
The topic of the book was interesting to me but the delivery was somewhat confusing and poorly constructed. Many times I got lost in the middle of a paragraph and had to start over...this from a guy who reads many many books a year on various topics. I'm used to reading dry material...but this was worst than most.
Chapters 6 through 9 are probably the most interesting and descriptive of the book. These chapters describe the reasons behind why people in my generation (and those younger than me) are looking for more than 'just a job' and why many people are tiring of the '8 to 5' experience.
With that said, I would still recommend this book to those folks interested in the topic of economic development, regional development, city planning or just a general review of social science literature. If you pick up this book, take my advice and skim it rather than read every word...there is a lot of "stuff" that isn't relevant to the overall message of the book.
|
 A Compelling Thesis, but a Sometimes Frustrating Read ( arthennessey )
A local newspaper just reported that Microsoft will be opening an Innovation Center here in Boston.
Having just finished Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class, I found the news to make a lot of sense.
In this book, Florida lays out snapshots of economic patterns, developments and innovations throughout history and then attempts to tie them all together into an arch thesis. He sees most of the economic power, and indeed the power to to form the way we work today, shifting to a class of innovative-minded, usually educated, creative workers.
Mobile, intense and diverse; the creative class, Florida points out, tends to cluster geographically around innovative centers. But unlike some long held beliefs would have it, (beliefs that still influence much public and urban economic policy,) "creatives" aren't attracted by larger capital projects like suburban industrial parks. Instead they like to live in, or close by, locations that have creative enviroments influenced by thing such as tolerance, talent and technology. (Florida calls these the 3 T's.)
Florida has a palpable despair when he talks about his adopted hometown of Pittsburg, PA. Here is a city, he tells us, that still doesn't get it. Despite many traditional urban policy efforts, that city continues its decline from a once vaunted status as an innovative center, where new methods of steel production made it an economic powerhouse. Meanwhile, a city like Austin, Texas is able to attract the most innovative young Americans and spawn startups and companies that are powering the new economy. Examining differences like these provides both the starting point and the heart of Florida's argument.
The book constructs a very compelling narrative, which feels, in some ways incomplete; it makes sense that the author has gone on to write several other books to elaborate and track his thesis as our times change.
The major problem Florida encounters, (mentioned in other reviews, and which I will second here,) is just how to define his "creative class." Who is in it? While he does segment this class into two distinct categories, sometimes it is tough to follow. At one point he seems to be saying that everybody is in the creative class because everybody is creative.
The book is easy to read, but perhaps not easy enough. What I mean is that Florida writes in very simple, understandable prose, (almost too simple at times; the most interesting passageas are quotes cited from other authors) but the overall structure of the book seems a little off. He will sometimes lead with pages of dry, statistical information, and then follow up with a narrative or colorful example. While this seems like a logical way to construct the argument, (lay out the evidence and then nail it home,) sometimes it can make for a frustrating reading experience.
Overall, Florida's book has somewhat of an identity crisis: Current Affairs/Economic Policy Paper/Self-Help/Journal Article/Memoir/Powerpoint Presentation. He intends the book for anybody, but he knows that he is dealing with statistical and economic models that may be too much for the average reader. He thinks the stories and observations bring home his point better than the data, but is concerned that critics, and even readers, may think he is centering his thesis on anecdotal evidence.
Reading the book is necessary if you are going to develop an opinion on the policy suggestions Florida is inspiring all over the country. For example, Massachusetts just appointed, in their Business Development Office, a Creative Economy Director. A superficial synopsis of the ideas presented in Rise of the Creative Class tends to betray the larger and more complicated development issues with which the author is concerned.
The book will keep you thinking for a long time afterwards.
|
 Great explanation how the World works and where it is heading. ( gaet )
Richard Florida is one of the most original thinkers explaining how the world works. Others are better known such as Thomas Friedman. But, not many are more insightful. I got to R. Florida's work in reverse. I read his most recent book first Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life. I enjoyed this book so much; I read this earlier book second. It is just as interesting.
If you are in the workforce, you will identify with Florida "Creative Class." He analyzes all the economic, social, cultural, and psychological trends associated with the emergence of this Creative Class. The world he depicts is recognizable because it pictures the working world we live in.
He observes two major emerging trends: first people sort themselves by his defined classes (creative -, working -, service -) and by places. Second, the Creative Class represents the economic winners. Wherever they cluster, places thrive. This work supplements Hernstein and Murray's observations in Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (A Free Press Paperbacks Book) that people sort themselves by cognitive abilities. R. Florida supplements that this cognitive stratification has a geographical component.
There is nothing fuzzy about his `Creative Class' concept. It is based in precise definition of census job categories (IT, engineer, lawyer, scientist, business, finance, health care, arts, etc...) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Appendix Table 2 shows that the Creative Class grew from 10% of the workforce in 1900 to 30.1% in 1999. During the same period, the Working Class shrank from 35.8% to 26.1%, and Agriculture shrank from 37.5% to 0.4%.
With the rise of the Creative Class, innovation in the U.S. has grown exponentially. In the third chapter `The Creative Economy,' the author shows graphs disclosing the very rapid growth during this period in R&D, patents, and number of scientists. R. Florida shows how the U.S. in 1999 was the world leader in the majority of Creative Class sectors such as R&D, software, Media, film, fashion, and art. This is because of the U.S. competitive advantages such as first class universities, research, and venture capital financing. Also, those factors are supported by a tolerant culture that he measures at the MSA level with his Gay Index and Bohemian Index. He states that the U.S. hi-tech centers (San Francisco-San Jose, Seattle, Boston) were first culturally tolerant cities that fostered out-of-the boxes concepts generated by any weirdoes that came by. He describes Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Bill Gates in such fashion. Their ideas would have not succeeded in traditional locations.
R. Florida views creativity as the main economic engine. It is more important than labor, land, or capital. He refers extensively to the major economists who studied the economic impact of creativity before him, including Joseph Schumpeter who came up with the concept of creative destruction seventy years ago as depicted in The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle (Social Science Classics Series). He explores this concept more extensively in "Who's City Are You?" where he shows that 40 Mega Regions with only 17% of the World's population generate two thirds of the World's GDP and over 80% of its innovations. Nevertheless, R. Florida was already onto this concept back in 2002. Three years before Thomas Friedman wrote The World Is Flat R. Florida already knew it was not. Instead, it is really spiky with most of the economic and creative activities concentrated in just a few regions. His analysis of how the world works is more insightful than Friedman's.
Human capital is the central factor in regional growth. Investment in higher education predicts subsequent growth better than investments in physical infrastructure like roads. Regional economic growth is driven by the choice of the Creative Class. Where they decide to live, places will thrive. It is crucial for a city to develop a people climate that attracts the Creative Class in addition to a business climate. City leaders waste tax credits on stadiums that do not contribute to economic growth instead of applying them to university research, local neighborhoods and communities, music scene, and start up incubation. Two cities that have done an outstanding job in this area are Austin and Dublin in Ireland. One city, among many others, that did not is Pittsburgh.
He uncovers strong positive relationships between his Bohemian and Gay Indices and economic growth, hi-tech sector growth, and population growth. He advances his theory of the three Ts. Economic growth and innovation flourish in places that are tolerant, attract talent and in turn attract technology. However, he divulges that such places are not ethnically diverse. He notices an absence of African American. However, earlier in the book he mentions that Asians and Indians (from India) are more than well represented in such hi-tech enclaves including San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Thus, his findings on diversity depend on what ethnic group he focuses on.
R. Florida captures other interesting cultural features of the Creative Class. The members of this class are into sports such as biking, kayaking, hiking, instead of football and baseball. They are into experiencing nature at their own pace (often intense) instead of waiting around for a ref to make a call. He states that in certain hi-tech circles mountain biking has become a required social skill. R. Florida being also a touring biker indicates he chronically meets the top echelon in human capital (college professors, surgeons, entrepreneurs, lawyers) when biking. Also, he observes a high correlation between a city's fitness rank and its Creativity Index.
When combining this book with his subsequent "Who's City are You?" Richard Florida explains a whole lot of what is going on from the local to the international level. His theory is scalable like a beautiful intellectual fractal.
|
Fascinating ( amriser )
I never read anything but fiction as a rule, but I couldn't put this down. This was my history, my family, my city, all the changes I've seen in them over the last 50 years, explained and redefined. I consider it a great tool for employers and city planners and for creative people it creates a great sense of connection.
|
The Economics of Creativity: Common-sense, yet novel ( adamrulzz22 )
Upon a cursory glance, Richard Florida's theories regarding the factors that empower truly dynamic, prosperous cities resonate as highly embellished common sense: open-minded, diverse cities (i.e., New York, Chicago) have always and will always outperform more close-minded, culturally heterogeneous places such as Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. But look deeper, and what you discover is a truly unique view - and in my opinion, a correct analysis - of a fundamental shift in the orientation of our society's workforce and economic structure, transcending even the oft-accepted "intellectual capital" approach to urban success.
Essentially, Florida argues that an active fostering of the "3 T's" - technology, talent, tolerance - will be key to cities/urban areas wishing to thrive in the next century; and that a new class of knowledge professionals has emerged, coalescing around work that requires some degree of "creative" thought. This new creative class includes two components: a "super-creative core" consisting of scientists, artists, and engineers, along with more tertiary professionals such as accountants, lawyers, IT professionals, and financial analysts. The creative class, it is quantitatively demonstrated, has led the nation in job creation and income growth, and with the rise of global economic integration (i.e., globalization) and competition from low-wage countries for basic service-level jobs, the creative class will continue to ascend into a role of economic primacy. The cities that thrive in the next century will be the "creative centers"; places like San Francisco, Atlanta, and Denver that actively nurture the 3 T's. These will be the cities that combine a strong technology-empowered economy with highly-educated citizens and a tolerance for immigrants and alternative lifestyles, best exemplified by the presence of "bohemians" (i.e., artists and other "quirky" intellectual types) and gays. The emphasis on the latter two groups has brought Florida's work under attack from many social conservatives, but facts remain facts: as Florida clearly demonstrates, cities that are tolerant of all forms of diversity have fared better and will almost certainly continue to fare better than those who uphold exclusionary, bigoted social agendas.
Of course, this is a gross oversimplification of Dr. Florida's theories. Much attention is focused on the social and economic developments that preceded the emergence of this new social model; methods for rating the creativity of cities (an overall "creative index", along with his controversial gay and bohemian indexes); and a discussion of how some cities have succeeded in becoming creative centers, while others have failed.
Whether for urban theorists/students of urban theory, leaders in municipal governments, or social scholars, Dr. Florida's work in The Rise of the Creative Class sheds great insight into one of the most important emerging trends in the early 21st Century.
|
|
|
