. .~ :~ -~ i .. / .. __ :].' ,'" / f ... Richard Florida ~.. ~- ~ - ~ ~­ i: Editors' Introduction f ~ - In The Condition of th e Working Class in 1844 (p. 46), and in subsequent collaborations with his colleague Karl ~ i; Marx, Friedrich Engels announced the emergence of a new social class - the proletariat or industrial working ~ -· class - th at was destined to have a world-historical impact on th e shape and content of human society at the time Ii: of the Industrial Revolution and th e rise of the industrial city. In Th e Rise of the Creative Class, Ri chard Florida ~-· f:: describes the emergence of a new socio-economic class, one that creates ideas and innovations rather than f products an d 1s the driving force of post-industrialism rather than industrialism. Florida asks us to ask ourselves: ~ will the new "creative class" have as important and revolutionary an impact on the twenty-first-century information­ based economy and society as the working class had in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? According to Fl orida, there are two layers to the creative class. First, there is a "Super-Creative Core" consisting of "scientists and engineers, university professors, poets and novelists, artists, entertainers, actors, designers and architects, as well as the thought leadership of modern society: nonfiction writers, editors, cultural figure s, think-tank researchers, analysts and other opinion-makers." Second, there are "creative professionals" - those who "work in a wide range of knowledge-intensive industries such as high-tech sectors, financial services, ~- the legal and health care professions, and business management" - as well as many technicians and paraprofessionals who now add "creative value" to an enterprise by having to think for themselves. All these, taken together, constitute a true economic class that "both underpins and informs its members' socia l, cultural and lifestyle choices." Florida is quick to note that he is not using the term class to denote "the ownership of property, capital or th e means of production." On th e contrary, he argues, if we use those old Marxist categories, we are still talking about old-styl e, bourgeoisie-and-proletarian capitalism. In th e new postmodern, post-industrial economic order, the "members of the Creative Class do not own and control any significant property in th e physical sense. Th eir property - which stems from th eir creative capacity - is an intangible because it is literally in their heads." Many cities have embraced Florida's th esis about the creative class. Eager to attract "creative class" residen ts, some cities have sponsored special arts districts and diversity festivals as a part of th eir redevelopment policies in an attempt to jump-start lagging economies. In some cases, such as Denver's LoDo neighborhood, arts-friendly policies - along with new light-rai l transit an d a downtown baseball stadium - succeeded in revivifying what had been a decaying warehouse district. In other cases, such as San Francisco's adoption of planning regulations supporting the building of "live-work" lofts fo r artists and other creatives, was arguably just another ploy on th e Part of housing developers with connections al City Hall. Inevitably. a critical opposition to "creative class" theory has developed. Some have called Florida "elitist," and Steven Malanga, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute. writing in th e Wall Street Journal, has Galled Fl orida the peddler of "economic snake oil" and the developer of "trendy. New Age theories" that are just RI C HARD FLORIDA "plain wrong." It is lower taxe s and public safety, not arts festival s and lively gay neighborhoods, according to ;i:id -;_, 111 n ;on ic IL: r Malanga, that attract the industr ies that bring high employment and robust tax revenues for municipalities. c!C'-~n i . ~ !Ti C funL tlOll Richard Florida 1s the director of th e Martin Prosperity Institute at th e Rotman School of Management at the eni.: es. co1h.m1ptior University of Toronto. He has taught at MIT, Harvard, and Carnegie Mellon and is the founder of th e Creative Group :den ti ties aii Ho w In and Catalytix, two business·communications·and·strategy consulting firms. The Rise of the Creative Class received I ;im nlll talking i the Washington Monthly's Political Book Award for 2002 and was praised by the Harvard Business Review as vl"l4: of i.h e o .vrn: r:;hlp or of the most important "breakthrough ideas" of recent soc1o·economic analysis. Florida has also published The F!ig ;; ,110duc1iun. If we U' of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent (New York: HarperColl1ns, 2005), Cities and th ~e ~ s e. we are still Creative Class (New York: Rou tl edge, 2005), Who's Your City? (New York: Basic Books, 2009), and The Great of ca pirulisis who o Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity (New York: HarperCollins, 2010). duction. and workt For intellectual sources of Florida's thesis about the creative class, see Fritz Machlup, The Production and analy rica l Uliliry re Distribution of Knowledge in the Un ited States (Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 1962), Daniel Bell, The of bQurgeoisie and 1 Coming of Post-Industrial Society (New York: Basic Books, 1973), and Peter Drucker, Post-Capitalist Society Most members or t ~ (New York: Harper Business, 1995). For critiques of the Florida thesis, se e Allen J. Scott, "Creative Cities: control any sigrnfi c::: Conceptual Issues and Pol icy Questions" (Journal of Urban Affairs, 28, 2006) and Michele Heyman and Their property ···· v Christopher Farticy, "It Takes a Vill age: A Test of the Creative Class, Social Capital and Human Capital Th eories· capacity - is an 111ta1 (Jo urnal of Urban Affairs, 44, 2009). heads. And it is ir resear ch and interv11 Creative Class do nc social grouping, th T he 1ise of the Creative Economy has had a profound which curiosity and originality are indispensable. tastes. desires and r effect on the sorting of people into social groups . The young flocking to the ci ties to devote them­ not be as distinct or classes. O thers have speculated over the years on selves to "a rt, .. "writing," ··creative w ork" - anything, Working Class in ito lhe rise of new classes in the advanced industri al vi rtually, that liberates them from the presence of coherence. economies. During the 1960s. Peter Dru cker and Fritz boss or superior - are aspirant X peo ple. If. as M achlup described the growing role and importance [C. W1ight) Mills has sai d. the middle-class person is of the new group of workers th ey dubbed "know­ "always somebody's man," the X person is nobody's. THE NEW CLAS~ ledge workers." Writing in th e 1970s. Daniel Bell . X people are independent-minded .. .. They pointed to a new, more meritocra tic cl ass structure of ad ore the work they do. and they do it until they The distinguishing d scientists. engineers. managers and administrators are fi nally ca rri ed out. "retirement" being a concept is that its members c brought on by the shift from a manufacturing to a meaningful only to hired personnel or wage slaves to "crea te meaningfu "postindustrial " economy. The sociologist Erik Olin who despi se their work. Class as consisting Wright has w ri tten for decades about the rise of wha t Crea tive Core of th is he ca lled a new "professional-manageri al"' class Writing in 2000. David Brooks outlined the blending engineers, university Robert Re ich more recenrly advanced the term of bohemian ;.in d bourgeois values in a new social artists. entertainers, ·symbolic analysts" to describe the members ot the grouping he dubbed the Bobos. My take on Brook.s's as well as the thoug workforce who manipulate ideas and symbols All of synthesis . is ra ther different. stressing the very trans­ nonfiction writers. e< these observers caught economic aspects of lhe ce ndence of th es e two categories in a new creative resea rchers. analys em erging class structure that [ describe here. ethos. Whe th er th ey are sof " O thers have examined emergi ng social norms The main point I want to make here is that the architects or ti lmm and value systems. Paul Fussell presc ient ly captured basis of the Creati ve Class is economic. I define it as crea tive process. I cl ( many that I now attribute to the Creative Class in his an economic class and argue that its economic func­ work as producing theory oflhe "X Class. ·· Near the end of his 1983 book tion both underpins an d informs its members· social. readily transferable a Class - atter a wiuy romp through status markers cultural and lifestyle choices. T he Creanve Class ing a product that ca that deiineate. say. the upper middle class from 'high consists of people who add economic value through coming up with a t: proles" - Fussell noted the presence of a growing "X" th eir creativity. It thus includes a great many know­ appiiC'd in many cas group that seemed ro deft existing ca tegories ledge workers. symbolic analysts an d professional and be performed again technical workers, but ernphasizes th eir true role in the rh<.: Creative Class en [Y]ou are not born an X person .. you earn X­ economy. My defin1 oon of class emphasizes the way it's what th ey are r perso nhood by a strenuous effort of di sc overy in peopl e orga nize thernselves into social groupings ::.olvirrg. th ei r work rn "THE CREATIVE CLASS " JJ1d cornrnon identities based principally on their building a better mousetrap.