Flight of the Creative Class
I read a book review this morning in Wired (click here for Wired Web site) on “Flight of the Creative Class” by Richard Florida (buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net). It got a so-so review, and I haven’t read the book (has anyone else?). But I did like the 3 concepts/engines he seems to have built his book around.
The book is about the creative capital that the US is losing at an alarming rate, and the risk to it’s ‘Global Edge’. Florida suggests that the engines of economic growth are technology, talent and tolerance.
These 3 drivers got my attention. Mostly because one of them is the bell we’re ringing within TomorrowToday.biz, the other I am completely committed to, and the third because we’re wrestling in a country struggling to work out how to do it.
I may just go out and get the book.
Nuf Sed
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Florida has expanded his 3T factors into a fourth T – territory assets. These relate to factors in a region that attract the creative sector to that area, such as sport lifestyle options, natural features etc. His work to date is a great lens in which view the how a creative-led economy can create value.
It also offers a shift in the way in which we look at what people actually do *within* these industries, as opposed to broadly categorising an industry as a sector eg. petroleum or insurance. Are they get paid to execute, or to develop ideas. The latter is where value is created. So when analysing a region, not only is the industry breakdown important, but also the breakdown of non-creative/creative roles within that economy.
For a Cape Town-centric application of Florida’s work take a look here:
http://www.ideafarm.co.za/blog/archives/2004/11/cape_towns_crea_2.html