http://www.placemakers.com/2013/11/18/richard-florida-on-tech-talent-and tolerance
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Richard Floria
mocoloco.com |
Hello Everyone:
In yesterday's post, ""Blame The Artists?" I mentioned Richard Florida and his theories on the creative class. Today, I'd like to elaborate a little more on Mr. Florida, what he means by the creative class and how technology, talent, and tolerance are essential to fostering said group of people. The starting point is an article posted by Hazel Borys in
Place Makers about a luncheon put on by the Winnipeg Chamber in mid-November. Ms. Borys found Mr. Florida's talk about using technology and talent to instill creativity in all people inspirational. Richard Florida's theories on the creative have inspired many a urban planners and developers to create, for better or worse, arts districts in their cities as a mechanism for renewal and development. However, what is it about Richard Florida, other than his obvious good looks, that planners and developers find so fascinating?
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The Rise Of The Creative Class
creativeclass.com |
Let's start with who exactly Richard Florida is. Richard Florida is an urban theorist, the Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, Global Research Professor at New York University, and the founder of the Creative Class Group
(http://www.creativeclass.com), which works closely with governments and companies around the world. The CCG's mission is empowering communities, organizations, and people in order to tap into their innate creativity to achieve prosperity and well-being. Mr. Florida is best-known for his 2002 book
The Rise of the Creative Class, which he examines the forces that reshaped global economy, geography, work, and our way of life. Through a blend of story-telling and mountains of research, Mr. Florida traces, seemingly unrelated motifs of change in American society-the growing role of creativity. In the ten years since the publication of his book, humanity has experienced world-shattering events, the aftermath of 9/11, the collapse of the tech bubble, and the financial meltdown of 2008. While any one of these events could have derailed the growth of creativity, instead, they became more entrenched in the United States and across the globe.
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The Creative Economy
lateralaction.com |
Who are the creative class and what role to they play? Richard Florida defined the creative class as a socio-economic group that act as the key agent of economic development in the United States. According to Mr. Florida, they make up about 30% (40 million) of American workers who he divides into two broad categories based on the Standard Occupational Classification System. One group is the Super-Creative core: made up of 12% of all U.S. jobs. It includes a wide range of jobs, some not ordinarily conducive to creativity such as engineering and computer program, along with art, design, and media workers. Mr. Florida considers the 12% to be "fully engaged in the creative process." Their primary task is to be creative and innovative, creating commercial and consumer good. According to Mr. Florida, "along with problem solving, their work may entail problem finding." The second category is the Creative professional. These individuals are part of the classic knowledge-based profession such as health care, business and finance, the legal profession, and education. According to the book, they "draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems," using higher degrees of education to accomplish the job. In addition to these two groups, there is a smaller group called "Bohemian," which include the Creative Class.
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Even fruit can be creative
creativeclass.com |
Back to Hazel Borys' lunch with Richard Florida. Currently, the creative class numbers 35% of the North American workforce, generating over half the Gross Domestic Product, and it's still growing. In some neighborhoods, the creative class make up an overwhelming 90% percent of the workforce. Ms. Borys points out that these neighborhoods are walkable communities. Quoting Mr. Florida, "What we are living thru is the failure of the suburban growth model...the primary reason for the global financial crisis." The segments of the economy that generate the most wealth are business and management, science and technology, banking and finance, and arts and culture. Ms. Boryss asks, "Is the city you live in nurturing technology, talent, and tolerance. Are these sectors thriving in your community?" She cites that openness is the key to Canada's success and tolerance is the proverbial canary in the coal mine.
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Rise of the Creative Class
martinprosperity.org |
The re-industrialization, as opposed to de-industrialization, is the totem of creative places. It depends on, not only CEOs and MBAs, but also on the intelligence of workers being empowered and celebrated. The more creative a workforce-in a factory setting
and design studio-the more likely they are to demand nearby, round the clock places to live and work. In a statement of the obvious, it's not the machines that make a factory great, it's the creativity of the workers. Ms. Borys uses a bit of labor Darwinism, one group gets ahead, while the other falls behind. Adapt creatively or parish. In the post-World War II years, industrial jobs were held up as good jobs. Now the challenge is to make
every job a good job. Hazel Borys asks, how do we move from a creative class to creative culture?
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"Create Here"
thenarcissisticanthropologist.com |
Richard Florida, "Creativity isn't a theory about hipsters and the latte set. The key driver of a resilient economy is the same thing that binds us as humans-our shared creativity." About 100,000 people in Winnipeg are part of the creative class. The city boasts the highest concentrations of musicians on the planet, and most can be found performing in the streets. Approximately 250,000 people are part of the service economy, some with precarious employment. What enables the service sector is getting more creative, which drives wealth both in the domestic and civic levels. Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos wrote in his book,
Delivering Happiness, why he moved from his office in the suburbs to downtown Las Vegas was an act of place making, that enabled his workers in a very service-oriented city, to be more creative. The point was that Zappos didn't build another corporate campus, the rebuilt a city, different from Silicon Valley. Zappos isn't the only company that moved back downtown: Google in New York City and Twitter in San Francisco. Cities are the creative furnaces and the most opportunistic firms are stoking the fire.
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Big thinkers, big ideas
graphicfacilitation.blogs.com |
Richard Florida, "The creative revolution is complete. The urban revolution-the way of life revolution-is just beginning." The venerable Jane Jacobs once said that companies make things more efficient and productive, but the source of innovation is our cities. Urban innovation doesn't spring from sprawling suburbia or ivory towers but from interaction on the streets. The late Ms. Jacobs felt that new ideas needed old buildings and innovation requires a melange. Reuse, repurposing, and redevelopment of historic building stock is essential to competing with global cities (Yeah!). The quality of a place-i.e unique territorial offerings-is a contemporary advantage for cities. Said quality of a place requires a balance of natural and built environment where all the magic happens. Great cities are on a hierarchy of meeting human needs: 1) Safety and security; 2) Economic opportunity; 3) The ability to be engaged with equality; 4) Placemaking.
What conclusions can we draw from this? One conclusion is creativity is about people. It's about tapping into innate talent and bring out by giving them the tools to do so. Another conclusion we can draw, is that place is a factor in creativity. Some places, in this case urban settings, are more conducive to creativity because they have the resources available. Interaction in urban settings is a part of the idea of place making. Interaction can take place between individuals or between one individual and an object or property. It's what a person takes away from that interaction becomes part of the creative process. Can creativity take place in non-urban settings? Maybe, but the key ingredients, place making and interaction are missing. Creativity is about engagement with the world and the individual; affecting the way we do our work. In a creative environment, we grow and produce things in limitless ways.
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