The national bestseller that defines a new economic class and shows how it is key to the future of our cities. The Washington Monthly 2002 Annual Political Book Award WinnerThe Rise of the Creative Class gives us a provocative new way to think about why we live as we do today-and where we might be headed. Weaving storytelling with masses of new and updated research, Richard Florida traces the fundamental theme that runs through a host of seemingly unrelated changes in American society: the growing role of creativity in our economy. Just as William Whyte's 1956 classic The Organization Man showed how the organizational ethos of that age permeated every aspect of life, Florida describes a society in which the creative ethos is increasingly dominant. Millions of us are beginning to work and live much as creative types like artists and scientists always have-with the result that our values and tastes, our personal relationships, our choices of where to live, and even our sense and use of time are changing. Leading the shift are the nearly 38 million Americans in many diverse fields who create for a living-the Creative Class. The Rise of the Creative Class chronicles the ongoing sea of change in people's choices and attitudes, and shows not only what's happening but also how it stems from a fundamental economic change. The Creative Class now comprises more than thirty percent of the entire workforce. Their choices have already had a huge economic impact. In the future they will determine how the workplace is organized, what companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and even which cities will thrive or wither.
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"An exhaustive study that ought to be read by every city planner and economic developer who wants to thrive in the next century.... It tells us a lot about ourselves, where we've been and where we are going."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Richard Florida is Professor of Business and Creativity at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and the founder of the Creative Class Group, a for-profit think tank that charts trends in business, communities, and lifestyles. His national bestseller "The Rise of the Creative Class" was awarded the "Washington Monthly"'s Political Book Award and "Harvard Business Review"'s Breakthrough Idea Award. He lives in Toronto, Canada.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By P. Clapp
Format:Paperback
Compared to other texts on the same subject (Manuel Castells; Robert Reich; Jeremy Rifkin) I found this text to be a rather 'trashy' light-weight ego-centric account of the increased stratification of work, employment and society. It is airport-lounge chic-lit, to Castell's magnus opus.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This really ought to be called 'The Horror of the American Workplace', given the description of how exploitative American companies appear to be of the very essence of their employees and the organisations with whom they work. According to this book, there is no part of the human being that cannot be put to the service of business. This point aside, Florida's work, despite its profound and irredeemable flaws, is not without interest as a social document demonstrating the intellectual tangle that is created as a means of studying an apparently simple question. Florida's definition of the very class he seeks to identify and call to community action struggles because it simply does not have enough in common with one another to justify the definition. His interpretation of creativity includes anyone with an education and the opportunity to make a living from it, and this is simply too broad: heart surgeons, IT people (whoever they are) and artists are all lumped in as having common cause, but the argument fails because, quite simply, they don't. What they do have is the capacity to make choices for themselves, and in a society transformed by technology and determined by loose social ties they vote with their feet.
The creation of a wage-slave class in the US since the Reagan years is the real problem here, as it entirely wastes the potential and investment in a broad swathe of American society. They are excluded from decision-making (and not from creativity, which they are expected to employ in dealing with their customers), and as such this looks a lot like a straightforward Marxist division of labour. The problem for Americans is that they can't acknowledge this deep split in their social arrangements for two reasons. The first that that the National Story insists that the US is a meritocracy, and the second is that it is the attraction of this story that continues to draw large numbers of immigrants to depress the cost of wages in the service sector. In the end, Florida has missed the point, and obliquely uncovered that those, like himself, with money, possibilities and imagination show no loyalty to anyone when it comes to furthering their self-interest. My astonishment is that it took him so long to find it out, and that so many people needed him to point it out for them.
The creation of a wage-slave class in the US since the Reagan years is the real problem here, as it entirely wastes the potential and investment in a broad swathe of American society. They are excluded from decision-making (and not from creativity, which they are expected to employ in dealing with their customers), and as such this looks a lot like a straightforward Marxist division of labour. The problem for Americans is that they can't acknowledge this deep split in their social arrangements for two reasons. The first that that the National Story insists that the US is a meritocracy, and the second is that it is the attraction of this story that continues to draw large numbers of immigrants to depress the cost of wages in the service sector. In the end, Florida has missed the point, and obliquely uncovered that those, like himself, with money, possibilities and imagination show no loyalty to anyone when it comes to furthering their self-interest. My astonishment is that it took him so long to find it out, and that so many people needed him to point it out for them.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Rolf Dobelli
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
The good news is, Richard Florida’s book recognizes the growing economic and sociological impact of creativity. The bad news is that in just two years, it has lost some of its gloss. The collapse of the bull market, the popping of the dot.com bubble, the 9/11 trauma, each took some shine off of the creative economy, with its casual dress days, flexible schedules and free rides. But even though this appraisal occasionally sounds quaint, we believe that the book’s faith in the transforming economic and social power of creativity, its broad view, and its excellent references and quotations make it worth recommending.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Needs a good edit
Working in this area I thought I'd better brush up on my knowledge and see what all the fuss is about Richard Florida while I was at it. Read more
Published 20 months ago by El Pan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Groundbreaking book
The Rise of the Creative Class and How It's Transforming Work, Life, Community and Everyday Life gives us a sobering new picture of what contributes to regional development,
Published on 18 Nov 2010 by OleS
4.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful!
The good news is, Richard Florida's book recognizes the growing economic and sociological impact of creativity. Read more
Published on 8 Jun 2004 by Rolf Dobelli
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating and thought provoking stuff
Creative people cluster in cities, but in those cities which offer them the kinds of lifestyle and diversity that they are looking for. Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2002 by Andrew Howell
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