Posted on 03/21/2004 11:20:45 PM PST by KangarooJacqui
Creative types now rule the world, or the global economy at least, says the forward-thinking Richard Florida. Gabriella Coslovich explains
American author Richard Florida is fashionably late. Fifty minutes late. Probably been up all night being creative, offers his publicist. Perhaps. Irregular hours befits one of his class. The usual rules don't apply. Play bleeds into work, work into play.
Florida is an economics professor based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the author of the US bestseller The Rise of the Creative Class. The book's premise is simple and made headlines two years ago when it was released. The creative individual, Florida argues, is the "new mainstream", a creature to be feted by governments and companies smart enough to realise that the age of creativity is upon us.
Cities that accept and encourage diversity - be it racial, sexual or cerebral - are the economic winners of our age, says Florida. Think San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, even Sydney and Melbourne. Gay-friendly, immigrant-friendly, creative and bohemian is the way to wealth. Or, in Florida's neat summation, it's the three Ts - tolerance, talent and technology - that governments and business should foster.
Florida was in town last week as part of the Melbourne Fashion Festival, spreading his message to business leaders and politicians, among them Treasurer John Brumby, who's a fan.
Like Tyler Brule, founder of Wallpaper*, and marketing guru Sean Pillot de Chenecy, who were also here for the clothes-fest, Florida is fashionable in the broader sense of the word - forward thinking, trend setting. Beyond that, he admits he knows nothing about fashion, or art for that matter. Still, when he finally arrives for our interview he's impeccably dressed - besuited sans tie, his black shoes super-buffed. He casts a quick look at mine. Cream, scuffed.
He takes his seat, opposite a mirror, and checks his image, tugs at his hair. Hair set, he launches into his spiel.
If the creative individual is the new mainstream, then Florida is the new economic savant - ousting the Scrooge-like economic rationalists of yore with a theory that just may have broader appeal, at least to those who do not feel threatened by anything tagged "creative".
Let's not forget the jokes made at the expense of former prime minister Paul Keating and his obsession with antique French clocks and Zegna suits. Or, for that matter, Prime Minister John Howard's 1998 election campaign, which included advertisements slamming funding to the "elite arts". As Florida points out in his book, some people find the very notion of the creative class elitist.
"Most people would say what you need to do to become competitive is cut your taxes, reduce your business costs, privatise and deregulate. That won't work," Florida says.
Not unless you want to have a "race to the bottom", competing against India and China.
"What will work, though, and what we've seen work in country after country and community after community, is a focus on this kind of creative sector economic growth."
Florida coined his theory when he started to question the traditional notion that people moved to where the jobs were. His experience in Pittsburgh suggested something quite different, as illustrated in the case of one of the city's most famous information technology companies, Lycos. "Lycos couldn't attract, or at least rapidly attract, the people it needed to build its business, so it moved to Boston."
Florida concluded that companies move to where the creative people are, and that creative people move to cities that allow them to be themselves - however unconventional.
"Worldwide, people get this, they understand this, it validates them and typically, and I hate to say this, they're women, they're gay men and they're younger people. The hardest group to understand this are middle-aged and older, straight, white men - my group. Which is quite puzzling to me, because I'm one of them."
Married? Children?
"No, I'm single. How else could I do this?"
That's the other thing about these "creatives". They don't necessarily follow the well-worn path to domestic bliss, another reason the traditionalists find them so hard to stomach.
Still, Florida has hit a chord. In the US, his book has sold 150,000 hardback copies in two years and 55,000 paperbacks since January.
In Australia, the print run is a modest 5000 copies. The Australian publisher, Pluto Press, cannot say how many copies have sold since the book's release in January.
Florida's definition of the creative class is broad and includes a "super-creative core" featuring the likes of scientists, engineers, professors, poets, novelists, artists, entertainers, actors, designers, architects, journalists, and computer and maths gurus.
In the United States, the "creative class" comprises about 38 million people, or 30 per cent of all workers.
"In the US, 90 per cent of regions experience the brain drain to 10per cent of regions. Our creative economy is maybe clustered in 10 regions - San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Austin, New York, Chicago; you know the score."
So how does Australia rate? Inner Melbourne and Sydney are faring well, and compare favourably with creative centres around the world. Beyond that, there's room for improvement.
"Look at the statistics in this country; they're worse than for the US. The creative economy is in two places - Sydney and Melbourne - that's it. The rest of Australia is completely disconnected."
But Australia can build on its successes. Florida advocates increasing immigration, boosting spending on universities and arts and culture, and exploiting our lifestyle advantages. The competition for talented folk has gone global, and Australia could be one of the countries to benefit, especially since the United States has become less appealing.
"We're erecting a fence around our country and calling it 'homeland security' and not allowing people in, so that for the first time in several decades our foreign scientists are down and our foreign-born graduates are down, and then we're doing this crazy culture war with regard to family values versus gay people."
Sounds familiar. But booting out conservatives such as Bush isn't the answer, says Florida. Bridging the growing divide between the creative haves and have-nots, is.
"There is no way the creative economy will emerge unless we become more inclusive," he says.
What the hell does that mean?
Every dying city in the U.S. (and now maybe Australia) has latched onto his ideas.
"Oh, goody," the politicians crow. "Now we can raise taxes to improve our images and our quality of life. This will attract smart people who will proceed to rebuild our economies."
I fight this all time.
Business develops where it's profitable and sensible to do business. When a community has created that sort of atmosphere, development is more likely to happen.
And with said development, nifty things like coffee-houses, art galleries, loft apartments, and well -- all the stuff that wealth can create, seem to follow.
Sigh.
This is a publicity puff piece. This dude made his money selling a dumb book.:)
Wow. Talk about elitist snobbery rubbing the proletariats' nose in their collective dirt! The more they talk about their class, the less class they appear to have. Must be vexing for a Liberal, the vast majority of which have very little befitting them but the next welfare check and scorn from the Midnight Commisar. lol
Australia's Florida, as it were :)
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