Richard Florida

The rise of the creative class: and how it's transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life

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 Whytes 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 peoples choices and attitudes, and shows not only whats 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.

Toward the Learning Region

The aim of this book is to present a much-needed conceptualization of ‘the learning region’. The editors scrutinize key concepts and issues surrounding this phenomenon, which are then discussed in the context of recent literature. This unique conceptualization of the learning region presents a state of the art exploration of theories. Leading scholars from across Europe, the USA and South Africa draw upon various disciplines to explain how regional actors perform regional learning.

The Economic Geography of Talent

The distribution of talent, or human capital, is an important factor in economic geography. This article examines the economic geography of talent, exploring the factors that attract talent and its effects on high-technology industry and regional incomes. Talent is defined as individuals with high levels of human capital, measured as the percentage of the population with a bachelors degree and above. This article advances the hypothesis that talent is attracted by diversity, or what are referred to as low barriers to entry for human capital. To get at this, it introduces a new measure of diversity, referred to as the diversity index, measured as the proportion of gay households in a region. It also introduces a new measure of cultural and nightlife amenities, the coolness index, as well as employing conventional measures of amenities, high-technology industry, and regional income. Statistical research supported by the findings of interviews and focus groups is used to probe these issues. The findings confirm the hypothesis and shed light on both the factors associated with the economic geography of talent and its effects on regional development. The economic geography of talent is highly concentrated. Talent is associated with the diversity index. Furthermore, the economic geography of talent is strongly associated with high-technology industry location. Talent and high-technology industry work independently and together to generate higher regional incomes. In short, talent is a key intermediate variable in attracting high-technology industries and generating higher regional incomes.

Lean and Green: The Move to Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing

This article presents the results of a national survey of environmental manufacturing practices. Efforts by firms to improve manufacturing processes and increase productivity create substantial opportunities for environmental improvement. The adoption of advanced manufacturing process innovations provides incentives for the adoption of environmentally conscious manufacturing strategies. Close relationships across the production chain, between end-users and suppliers in particular, facilitate the adoption of this related bundle of environmental and industrial innovations. Firms and plants that are R&D-intensive and manufacturing innovators possess the capacity to both improve productivity and reduce environmental costs and risks.

The globalization of R&D: Results of a survey of foreign-affiliated R&D laboratories in the USA

Abstract This paper examines the globalization of innovation and the phenomenon of foreign direct investment (FDI) in research and development. To do so, it draws from a survey of foreign-affiliated R&D laboratories in the United States. While the literature on foreign direct investment has emphasized the role of markets in driving off-shore investments, the main conclusion of this research is that the globalization of innovation is driven in large measure by technology factors. Of particular importance is the objective of firms to secure access to scientific and technical human capital.

Gaining from Green Management: Environmental Management Systems Inside and Outside the Factory

Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) are relatively new and rather innovative management practices that provide firms with additional sources of information and leverage over their environmental and business processes and performance. This article reports the results of a survey of manufacturing plants that have adopted EMSs. It finds that EMSs are associated with factories that are larger, more committed to total quality management, and more innovative in general. EMSs are also a useful tool for managing community relationships and dealing with key stakeholder groups on potentially controversial environmental issues. Furthermore, EMS plants appear to pose less environmental risk for communities and report that their adoption and use of an EMS is an important factor in achieving this result. In the end, EMSs are an effective tool for managing environmental costs and risks inside and outside the factory in ways that add to, rather than detract from, the bottom-line.

Venture Capital, High Technology and Regional Development∗

FLORIDA R. L. and Kenney M. (1988) Venture capital, high technology and regional development, Reg. Studies 22, 33–48. This paper explores the role of venture capital in technological innovation and regional development. Both aggregate data and a unique firm level data base are employed to determine the location of major centres of venture capital, flows of venture capital investments, and patterns of investment syndication or coinvestment among venture capital firms. Three major centres of venture capital are identified: California (San Francisco–Silicon Valley); New York; and New England (Massachusetts–Connecticut): as well as three minor venture capital centres: Illinois (Chicago); Texas; and Minnesota. Venture capital firms are found to cluster in areas with high concentrations of financial institutions and those with high concentrations of technology-intensive enterprises. Venture capital firms which are based in financial centres are typically export-oriented, while those in technology centres tend t...

Venture capital-financed innovation and technological change in the USA

Abstract Venture capital has transformed the innovation process in the US. Venture capitalists provide funds and assist in the formation of new high technology business. They actively cultivate networks comprised of financial institutions, universities, large corporations, entrepreneurial companies and other organizations. These networks and the information flow at their disposal enable them to reduce many of the risks associated with new enterprise formation and thus to overcome many of the barriers that hold back innovation. Venture capital-financed innovation is a “new model” of innovation which goes beyond both classical entrepreneurship and corporate-based innovation. Venture capitalists forge important linkages among a variety of organizations which are important to the innovation process and act as “technological gatekeepers” accelerating the process of technological change. The venture capital industry is organized in a series of relatively self-contained complexes — technology-oriented, financial-oriented and hybrid — which play distinct roles in the process of venture capital-financed innovation. While venture capital catalyzes technological change, it also generates costs, most notably the disruption of established research organizations and the establishment of strong incentives for “breakthroughs” as opposed to other types of innovation.

THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF AUTOMOBILE PRODUCTION: JAPANESE TRANSPLANTS IN NORTH AMERICA

Japanese automobile firms have constructed substantial complexes of manufacturing plants in North America. The complexes include over two hundred and fifty components factories as well as twelve as...

Technology and Tolerance: The Importance of Diversity to High-Technology Growth

This study examines the relationship between the authors measures of diversity and tolerance and high-technology success in the 50 most populated metropolitan areas in the United States.