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The recession’s reshaping the country in surprising ways, according to author Richard Florida.

Big economic events — like the one we’re in now — change the map of America. They make winners and losers. They change where we live and work and what we do.
Acclaimed urban theorist Richard Florida says that on the other side of this economic bust, America’s economic geography will be different. Some cities, towns, regions will roar back to new prosperity. Others, he says, may find a reshaped economy passing them by. Some may be history.

CBC News sits down with this bestselling author, an influential academic who’s advising top politicians on how to reshape the economy, and ask: when the recession ends, which industries and which companies will be left standing? And how will your city fare?

George Strounboulopoulos talks with Richard Florida about this time of great reset for our economy.

Urban theorist Richard Florida is the author of the controversial book, The Rise of the Creative Class, which argues that creative people living in densely populated regions are the driving force for 21st century economic development.
More recently, he’s written about “How the Crash Will Reshape America” in the The Atlantic monthly. Florida says the U.S. economy will flourish if we allow it to “reset,” and encourage policies that would concentrate a highly mobile American population in compact cities.

With Detroit home prices at record lows, is this the end of a great American city or its best chance for a revival? How will the crash reshape America? That is the title question of Richard Florida’s piece in the Atlantic this month.

How the collapse of the Big Three automakers might actually turn out to be a good thing for Detroit.

New Normal: Is the American Dream dead?

Now more than ever, companies need unconventional thinking to work within the new rules set by the economic recession. Richard Florida has persuasively demonstrated how artists, scientists, engineers, writers, musicians and more can revitalize an entire city from urban decay. With today’s companies in a similar situation, what can members of the Creative Class do for businesses? Discussion of where new hires might come from and the impact they can make.