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The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life
 
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The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life (Paperback)

by Richard Florida (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
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Product Description

From Booklist

Florida, an academic whose field is regional economic development, explains the rise of a new social class that he labels the creative class. Members include scientists, engineers, architects, educators, writers, artists, and entertainers. He defines this class as those whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, and new creative content. In general this group shares common characteristics, such as creativity, individuality, diversity, and merit. The author estimates that this group has 38 million members, constitutes more than 30 percent of the U.S. workforce, and profoundly influences work and lifestyle issues. The purpose of this book is to examine how and why we value creativity more highly than ever and cultivate it more intensely. He concludes that it is time for the creative class to grow up--boomers and Xers, liberals and conservatives, urbanites and suburbanites--and evolve from an amorphous group of self-directed while high-achieving individuals into a responsible, more cohesive group interested in the common good. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Product Description

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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Customer Reviews

37 Reviews
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 (2)
2 star:
 (7)
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars a relic of the bubble economy, Jun 1 2004
By A Customer
This book was conceived during the 1990s when the high-tech bubble economy caused a labor shortage which made it possible for recent college grads with the right "hot" skills to "write their own tickets". Professor Florida wondered why Pittsburgh, his home town, was having trouble attracting high-tech talent, and graduates from local schools were choosing to move away. He found that these young, single, upper-income, well-educated people were making job choices based on geography. They wanted to live somewhere "fun" for young people. That is with amenities such as a vibrant night life, opportunities for outdoor recreation such as biking, rock climbing, etc. Thus they chose places like Austin TX with its music scene over Pittsburgh with its symphony.

This is interesting enough, and Florida makes the connection to earlier work (especially that of Jane Jacobs) on what makes a city an "authentic" and interesting place to live.

It is well known that as time goes on, so-called "knowledge workers" are becoming a larger and larger part of the economy. However Florida, perhaps driven to some "irrational exuberance" by the bubble economy we were living in when he was writing this, makes some pretty outlandish claims for the importance and power of this class of workers (which he calls "the creative class"). As of mid-2004, this all seems a quaint relic of 1990s "new economy" optimism.

He also fails to address two things which have had a huge impact on the labor market in recent years:

He mentions but does not address at any length the collapse of the high-tech bubble, and what impact this change will have on the phenomena he describes. It would seem that most of what he describes is (at least for now) no longer true, as high-tech workers can no longer pick and choose but are now in the position of being glad to find any job at all.

He does not mention at all the phenomenon of overseas outsourcing. This may not have been a hot topic when the book was written but by the time (Fall '03) he wrote the preface to the paperback edition it was so, and he does not even mention it, despite the fact that it is at the very least having a large psychological effect on the high-tech job market.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars too broad of a definition for creativity, Oct 25 2003
This review is from: The Rise Of The Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community And Everyday Life (Hardcover)
Florida's idea of a creative person is the software engineer who develops alternate downloadable ring tones for your telephone, or the Saturn engineers and marketers who come up with fake wood aftermarket car dashboard appliques. This is a degraded definition of creativity, one sure to include just about everyone in society up to and including the roofer installing an asphalt shingle on your roof, provided she makes the critical choice of applying the shingle one quarter inch to the right rather than one quarter inch to the left.

In its own sweet way, Florida's "creatives," or at least his watered-down definition of same, is as prejudiced as classic racists, homophobes, and sexists. Only instead of attempting to shunt blacks to the back of the bus, Florida's burgeoning "creative" managers are sending the working class factory jobs to China and the service class jobs to India. Having to live near these people, it would seem, is too painful for someone who markets Viagra for a living.

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars The rise of the over indulged techno class, Mar 18 2003
By Michelle H. Hegan (Troy, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Rise Of The Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community And Everyday Life (Hardcover)
This book states (and restates and restates) that there is this creative class that is making money and transforming cities into vibrant economies if they are given the freedoms they need to stay creative. Sadly while he in name only includes artists, writers and musicians he seems only concerned with creative technology folks. Sure they are making money but artists continue to do what they do and have always had liveable communities. Economically viable? Well they don't have a starbucks on every corner and they can't afford hip nightlife and funky grocery stores but people have been making art weather or not cities chose to cater to them. The overpaid techies who have the privlege of comanding huge salaries and little personal responsiblity for their wealth need more put on a silver platter for them. Artists and creative types have rarely looked to others for their sustainablity. This is a book that is so shallow in its approach to creativity an a truly authentic and sustainable city economy that it left me annoyed. And the passing references to this Creative Class being very diverse but not black made me sit up. Some of the most gifted (and popular) artists, musicians, writers and directors are black, surely they make up some of this group. But not in Austin, not in Texas where being black is dangerous. Mr. Florida has created a neat package, trendy catch phrase and tidy profit, but he has not tapped or understood true creativity.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Richard Florida for President
Richard Florida sees clearly what our present leadership does not- our country is in transition and the old rules no longer apply . Read more
Published on Jul 19 2004 by Lori

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 Jun 8 2004 by Rolf Dobelli

4.0 out of 5 stars Leaves us hanging
This book presents an interesting concept but the author doesn't tell us what to do with this information. Read more
Published on May 19 2004 by D. S. Bornus

1.0 out of 5 stars Fad book for the masses
If you've written a positive review here, you're probably one of the 38 million (how elite, basically 1/7 of the adult population) Americans who is a member of Richard Florida's... Read more
Published on May 3 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely interesting
This book is a facinating look at what really makes cities tick. As someone who grew up around boston and now lives in NYC the issues about city planning that Florida (the... Read more
Published on April 11 2004 by Nathan

4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting--surprisingly informative and worthwhile.
I think many of the preceding reviews provide insight on this book: the argument is a tough-sell, it relies on generalizations, and it doesn't get everything right. Read more
Published on Feb 20 2004 by Quickhappy

4.0 out of 5 stars Creative Class
Richard Floridaï¿s book, ï¿The Rise of the Creative Classï¿, provides readers with some interesting ideas about economic and social growth. Read more
Published on Feb 19 2004 by j_c_meier

1.0 out of 5 stars Wouldn't it be lover-ly
This book is a big sloppy wet-kiss to the book-buying audience that this marketing project is actually targeted towards, but contains no real practical philosophy! Read more
Published on Feb 14 2004

2.0 out of 5 stars Imaginary History
Richard Florida's thesis -- rising creativity as elixer of prosperity -- is astonishingly uninformed about American history. Read more
Published on Feb 8 2004 by Douglas W Rae

5.0 out of 5 stars The Cognitive Elite: Now you see it; now you don't
Possibly anyone who wrote a book on the ï¿Creative Classï¿ just before 2003 should be exempt from critical review ï¿ just like anyone who wrote an investment guide in 1928, or... Read more
Published on Jan 25 2004 by Celia Redmore

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