First we had blue collar workers. Then we had white collar. And
now we have … no collar.
The no collar, or “creative class,” says author Richard Florida,
“includes scientists and engineers, university professors, poets
and novelists, artists, entertainers, actors and designers and
architects, as well as the thought leadership of modern society:
nonfiction writers, editors, cultural figures, think-tank
researchers, analysts and other opinion-makers. The creative class
also includes ‘creative professionals’ 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.
“The distinguishing characteristic of the creative class is that
its members engage in work whose function is to create meaningful
new forms.”
There are a lot of them – an estimated 38.3 million Americans,
roughly 30 percent of the U.S. work force. They also tend to make
better than average incomes.
These people aren’t just fun to be around. Recent studies have
shown that their presence in a community is a key factor in
economic vitality.
The creative class isn’t bound by place. When conditions don’t
suit them, they move. This is turning traditional ideas of economic
development on its ear: Where once it was thought that creative
people moved to the company, now the company is moving to the
people it needs.
Professor Florida cites the case of Lycos (an Internet search
engine company), which one day picked up its roots from Pittsburgh
and moved to Boston.
Interestingly, the creative class has focused around a
relatively small number of regions, leaving, as Florida says, “many
older industrial regions – and many Sun Belt cities (once lauded as
models of economic growth) – behind.”
Florida writes that there are three T’s of this “new economic
geography”: technology, talent and tolerance. Technology speaks to
infrastructure, talent (at least in part) to the presence of
universities, but the tolerance one, in Florida’s words, is a “real
stunner.”
He says, “One of the best indicators of regional innovation,
high-tech industry and growth, is a measure I call the ‘gay
index.'”
In brief, Florida found that his research on the movement of the
creative class closely correlated with someone else’s study on the
location patterns of gay people.
This also closely matched the “bohemian” index – a count of
artists, writers and performers in a region.
The point isn’t that all creative people are gay, or even that
all gay people are creative.
The point is that the extent to which gay people are tolerated
in a community speaks to how open a place might be to nonordinary
thinking and behavior.
Members of the creative class use the word “diversity” a lot –
but not in the sense of a political agenda. They just like lots of
choices: music, performance, art scenes, restaurants, “authentic”
neighborhoods with some flavor.
Which cities come out on top in this new ranking? Here are the
top five: the San Francisco Bay area, Greater Boston, Washington,
Austin and Seattle.
The title of the book is “The Rise of the Creative Class: How
It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday
Life.”
The author, again, is Richard Florida. The book is available
from our libraries.
It’s creating a buzz in the community planning community. And it
might contain a tip or two about how a growing community can
position itself to attract and hang onto interesting
people.
Jamie LaRue is the director of the Douglas Public Library
District.