“For a place to harness creativity, it must be open to the creativity of all. Not just techies or the creative class, but everyone,” argues Richard Florida. For the author of The Rise of the Creative Class, openness is a key factor in a city’s economic growth.
Richard Florida, journalist, founder of creative group, author and global leader in urbanism, has brought a breath of fresh air to the field of urban renovation, especially after the collapse of the global housing bubble. Florida has been a prominent figure in the economic sphere since 1990, when he wrote his first book exploring the technological boom of Silicon Valley. His theories are characterized by his ability to recognize something many intellectuals had ignored: cultural diversity stimulates the economy.
Today’s highly mobile knowledge workers–the key to economic growth in a global economy where the talent and skills of the workforce is a prime difference-maker–choose where to live more for the qualities communities offer than for specific job-related reasons.
You don’t have to be a Marxist to wonder if capitalism has run its course. Though the stock market is soaring the economic recovery is jobless, millions remain un- or underemployed, and the economies of the world are mired in slow growth. At the same time, the gap between the rich and the poor is wider that it’s been in more than a century.Before we can treat capitalism’s symptoms, we have to understand its disease. We are in the midst of the greatest, most thorough economic transformation in all of history.
As we move into a spiky world dominated by cities, the winners and losers are becoming ever clearer. Cities show dramatic geographic divides by class, and some American metros have levels of inequality comparable to those in the poorest nations in the world. And the economic crisis and Great Recession has only compounded this situation.
Richard Florida speaking Friday, November 16th at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Jacksonville University College of Fine Arts.
Income and wealth inequality have risen to record levels in the United States. Even as cities have become the new social and economic organizing units of our increasingly spiky world, their inequalities are approaching levels found in Third World nations.
For the past year, Richard Florida and his Creative Class Group have partnered with UT Arlington to examine the region’s assets and challenges. The effort engaged representatives from the School of Architecture, the College of Education and Health Professions, and the School of Urban and Public Affairs, with input from major chambers of commerce, local elected officials, Vision North Texas, the North Texas Commission, and civic groups.
From California to Virginia, Richard Florida ranks the most innovative states
in the country to find out where good ideas are generating economic growth. California and Massachusetts rank 1st and 2nd on our new list of America’s most innovative states.
Brazil’s largest newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo interviews Richard Florida discussing the way forward for
three major countries where his ideas on creativity are more important than ever – Brazil, the US and the UK.
