Richard Florida

Richard Florida

Richard Florida (born November 26, 1957 in Newark , New Jersey ) is an American economist and university professor.

Life

After leaving school, Florida studied political science at Rutgers College and then moved for the Study of Urban Planning at the Columbia University . He finished his studies in 1986 with a Ph.D. and in 2005 received a position as a professor at the University of Toronto , where he teaches at the Rotman School of Management . Florida previously taught at Carnegie Mellon University from 1987 to 2005 .

Florida writes about the concepts and theories of the " creative class " and how they relate to urban society. Florida wrote the books The Rise of the Creative Class, Cities and the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class . Florida sees a connection between the economic strength of an urban region in relation to the presence of high-tech knowledge workers, artists, musicians and homosexual people. In addition to capital and companies, the economic strength of a region attracts especially creative people to Florida. Florida wrote its own ranking system that classifies cities according to criteria such as the Bohemian index , gay index or diversity index . Florida's theory of the “creative class” found its way into urban research, for example to explain the process of gentrification , and into urban planning, for example in concepts for the development of urban districts by stimulating the settlement of “creative” professional groups.

criticism

The business journalist Aditya Chakrabortty makes u. a. Florida's unrealistic policy advice is also responsible for the fact that Britain's industrial sector has shrunk by two thirds in the last 30 years. In his focus on the elite of the super-creative core and with his sharp demarcation between physical and knowledge workers, he ignores the poor performance of British management and propagates a utopia whose implementation in the context of the neoliberal restructuring of the cities of Great Britain in the vicinity of de-industrialized Greece have moved.

The urban and economic geographer Jamie Peck criticizes Florida, whose economic interests as a consultant are closely linked to the spread of his theories.

The economist and marketing specialist Björn Bloching points out that the results for large American cities cannot be transferred to Europe. In the USA there are few high-tech centers that are among the best in the world, with a high proportion of start-ups. In Europe, a large part of innovation takes place in broad-based industrial centers and established companies. While inner-city life, subcultural neighborhoods and cultural open-mindedness are among the defining elements of a city in Europe, cities in America are already considered to be “tolerant” and are beginning to revitalize their inner cities.

Methodically, it is questioned whether membership in the creative class can be determined by easily comprehensible and measurable job titles and characteristics. Creative people are individuals who tend to violate norms and who can be found not only in innovation-friendly milieus. Where innovations become routine everyday business, they are again in the minority. Richard Florida's so-called “creative bohemians”, the often underpaid young academic elites, are referred to by others (initially by the cultural scientist Mercedes Bunz ) as “urban bums”. Edward Glaeser uses regression analysis to show that the indicator chosen by Florida for the Creative Class correlates closely with formal education ; So it is presumably not the creativity that is supposedly expressed in the job titles, but rather the high level of formal education that functions as a driver of urban growth. The number of patent applications per capita also plays a minor role in growth. The gay index even correlates negatively with urban growth. According to Glaeser, this means that the targeted attraction of gays and lesbians cannot promote growth. Finally, he examines the Bohemian Index . This measures the regional concentration of artists, musicians, writers, designers and entertainers. It is very high in the largest metropolitan areas like New York or Los Angeles and correlates strongly with formal education, but on closer inspection its positive effectiveness in terms of urban growth can only be measured in two metropolitan areas: Las Vegas and Sarasota . In all other urban agglomerations, the Bohemianism effect has absolutely no influence on growth. According to recent figures presented by Richard Florida himself, the Bohemian index is even well below average in many fast-growing agglomerations in the south such as Jacksonville (Florida) , San Antonio or Houston . Most really creative people - so Glaeser - do not live in urban, but in suburban milieus with large lots, good car connections and good schools for their children.

This is also confirmed in Germany: The “Center for European Economic Research” found that of 150,000 companies that are newly founded in Germany every year, “the fewest clear growth targets” are pursued. Sobering it says: "Especially in the creative industry, entrepreneurial commitment is often limited to earning a living for the founder."

Fonts

• Reset - How we live and work differently and will establish a new era of prosperity , campus Verlag, 2010, ISBN 3-593-39125-2
• Who's Your City? , Basic Books, 2008, ISBN 0-465-00352-4
• The Flight of the Creative Class. The New Global Competition for Talent , HarperBusiness, HarperCollins, 2005, ISBN 0-06-075691-8
• Cities and the Creative Class , Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0-415-94887-8
• The Rise of the Creative Class. And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure and Everyday Life , Basic Books, 2002, ISBN 0-465-02477-7
• Industrializing Knowledge: University-Industry Linkages in Japan and the United States . MIT Press, 1999, ISBN 0-262-02465-9 (together with Lewis Branscomb and Fumio Kodama)
• Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and Its Transfer to the US . Oxford University Press , 1993, ISBN 0-19-507110-7 (with Martin Kenny)
• The Breakthrough Illusion. Corporate America's Failure to Move from Innovation to Mass Production , Basic Books, 1990, ISBN 0-465-00760-0

Web links

• official homepage
• The Rise of the Creative Class
• Unwired: Prepare for the next generation
• Center of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rotman Faculty Biograph ( Memento of the original from June 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Aditya Chakrabortty: Why doesn't Britain make things any more? The Guardian , Nov. 16, 2011.
3. ↑ Björn Bloching: The big difference between European and American cities. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , print edition, March 9, 2008.
4. ↑ Richard Florida: Bohemian Index. In: The Atlantic , June 10, 2010.
5. ^ Edward L. Glaeser: Review of Richard Florida's 'The Rise of the Creative Class'. Paper, Harvard University o. J. Online , accessed June 26, 2017.
6. ↑ Desperate search for the "creative class" , in: Cicero.