Narrow Results

In the new knowledge-based economy, the ability of both firms and regions to adapt to the changes in their external environment and to remain competitive is closely related to their capacity to innovate and continuously renew the existing structures and knowledge bases. With respect to this, dense concentrations of knowledge-intensive industries and related activities are usually considered to be propitious environments from which new innovations can emerge. In such environments, the ability to attract talented, highly skilled labor is crucial for the success of regions. Employees who possess and provide know-how and creativity play a leading role in knowledge-intensive production and innovation systems. For Florida (2002a), creativity and know-how are internalized in the creative class. In this paper, Florida's creative class thesis is applied to the context of the Nordic countries. The importance of location in attracting creative class members was studied. The empirical study also aimed at identifying the role of the creative class in supporting the birth of new high-tech firms in the Nordic countries. In addition, the relationship between high-tech intensity and the creative class is described. Our analysis indicates that the link between the creative class and high technology is strong with the share of high-tech employees, concentrations of high-tech industry, and the formation of new high-tech firms.

Over more than a decade, Knowledge Management (KM) thinkers have been pondering over the need for a new chapter in the evolutionary history of KM. Will it just be a regeneration based on the integration and new alignment of the numerous metaphors employed for KM’s past interpretations, or will it be — as Levy suggests — a decentralising revolution that gives more power and autonomy to individuals and self-organised groups? Inspired by the objective of this special JIKM issue, the paper adopts a current “Next KM Generation” concept and prototype-in-progress as a point of departure and reverse engineers its functionalities in order to crystallise those KM Models and Theories which — in terms of the concept to be introduced — have passed the test of time. Forty-eight KM constructs have been singled out which are the ingredients for the ongoing integrating, adapting, broadening, deepening, repurposing, and innovating activities of the Personalised KM concept and system design which has been transparently mapped and visualised utilising the Information-Space Model.

In this introductory chapter, we contextualize and briefly describe the intellectual contributions of the different chapters in this book. Following this chapter, which comprises Part I of this book, there are 11 chapters and each of these chapters addresses a particular research question or a set of questions about the creative class. Part II of this book consists of two chapters and this part focuses on alternate conceptual approaches to the creative class. Part III also contains two chapters and this part concentrates on analytics. Part IV consists of five chapters and this part sheds light on a variety of regional perspectives on the creative class. Finally, the two chapters that make up Part V take a retrospective and a prospective look at research on the creative class. In the concluding section of this chapter, we offer some reflections on the cornerstones of creative class theory as advocated by Richard Florida two decades ago.

We study the properties of economic growth in a region that is driven by the activities of the so-called creative class. On the consumption side of our regional economy, we focus on an infinitely lived creative class household, and on the production side of this same economy, we concentrate on a final good that is produced using creative and physical capital. In this setting, we first define and then characterize a competitive equilibrium for our regional economy. Second, we show that this competitive equilibrium is Pareto optimal. Third, we demonstrate that sustained growth in this regional economy is impossible when the value of a key parameter of the production function is less than or equal to unity. Fourth, we specify the conditions in our model that need to hold for there to be sustained economic growth. Fifth, we study what happens to the share of physical capital in our region’s total income. Finally, we analyze what happens to the asymptotic growth rate of physical capital and consumption when a regional authority taxes the returns from physical capital.

In February of 2004, Richard Florida appeared at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall to talk about his creative class theories. Amid spotlights cutting across the sky and a packed house, it was definitely a star turn. The focus of the talk was on how any city, even Detroit, could pursue the creative class and enjoy the economic growth benefits they were purported to bring. Seventeen years later, it is time to ask the following: What about Detroit?

Detroit emerged as a model of urban-industrial decline in America, if not the world. Perhaps even more telling than the City’s 2013 bankruptcy, its economic collapse is effectively illustrated by a population exodus: a net loss of 1.25 million people since 1960, including a loss of almost a quarter million people just between the 2000 and 2010 census. Yet, following the successful resolution of the bankruptcy and new municipal leadership, the narrative has shifted to Detroit’s recovery and resilience. Detroit began to be defined as a comeback kid, a cool place for young hipsters to start businesses and buy homes, and a hotspot for tourism with a vibrant art and restaurant scene. Did the creative class save Detroit? This chapter tells a story of the efforts to attract the creative class in the world’s poster child of urban decline. In doing so, it poses and answers the following questions:

• 1. What policies has Detroit used to attract and retain the creative class and help them prosper?
• 2. What evidence is there of success in attracting creative individuals and businesses?
• 3. Has a focus on downtown amenities and the creative class positively impacted economic conditions throughout the city?
• 4. And, most importantly, what have been the racial and economic equity implications of the rise of the creative class in Detroit?

Previous research suggests that members of the creative class seem to have been resilient following the 2008 economic crisis. COVID-19, however, once again raises the question of how will the creative class fare. Existing studies focus on the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the creative industries, but very few consider the potential pervasive effect of the pandemic on individual workers. Moreover, there is a lack of studies that investigate the experience of specific groups in the creative class, even though their experiences are expected to vary considerably. Given this state of affairs, the purpose of this chapter is to address these gaps in the literature by exploring and describing the experience of Romanian performers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Florida’s approach to urban and regional development focusing on innovation and the creative class spurred an awareness of how space and particularly soft locational characteristics are related to economic performance. In the light of two decades of theoretical discussions and empirical findings, this chapter reflects on three aspects of Florida’s creative class approach. First, the definition and measurement of the creative class, second, the role of contextual differences for the outcome of the relations that are argued in the approach, and third, a discussion of what has changed in the last 20 years since Florida launched his book and to what extent the arguments are valid today with a specific reference to Europe.

The Rise of the Creative Class, which was originally published in 2002, has generated widespread conversation and debate over both its theory and empirics. This chapter recaps the key tenets of the creative class theory of economic development and discusses the key issues in the conceptual and analytical debate it has inspired.