{"id":1909,"date":"2015-12-12T10:12:34","date_gmt":"2015-12-12T18:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=1909"},"modified":"2015-12-12T10:12:34","modified_gmt":"2015-12-12T18:12:34","slug":"does-the-creative-class-matter-for-regional-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2015\/12\/does-the-creative-class-matter-for-regional-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the creative class matter for regional growth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"got<\/a>In a recent post<\/a>, Richard Florida looks at the growth in the ‘creative class’ in US metro areas since the year 2000. The biggest increase is in what was, in 2000, a city not known for creative class workers, Las Vegas. Indianapolis, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Cincinnati also post large (above 20%) gains in number of creative class workers.<\/p>\n

Does it matter? Here are a few questions that come to mind.<\/p>\n

First, I think a reasonable goal for cities is to attain broadly distributed gains across its population in standard of living and quality of life. Florida defines ‘creative class’ as “knowledge workers, tech workers, artists, designers, entertainers, and professionals in education, healthcare, and law.” These professions are seen to have something of a chicken\/egg relationship with regional growth (though its never been clear how much chicken, how much egg). If attracting this kind of talent sparks broad-based increases in the standard of living, great. But as much as been written on this phenomenon over the last dozen years, we still don’t know much about the relationship. Should cities go out of their way to attract such workers? We would need to know if there really are benefits, since any kinds of incentives to attract particular kinds of talent are not costless.<\/p>\n

Second, why these<\/em> workers in particular? They are a subset of skilled workers, but not necessarily creative<\/em> in the sense of generating new ideas that lead to increased productivity and growth. I enjoy the symphony, but in what creative way does the cellist in the orchestra boost urban growth in the same way as someone working on the bench in a pharmaceutical company? Some health care workers are creative, but others are doing work that, while it requires skills and decision-making ability, is not clearly creative. Florida’s definition comes from The Book<\/a>, but maybe it is worth digging deeper into professions, and innovative activity, to see what matters and what doesn’t. When I did some work on the creative class in US rural counties some years ago, I found some very poor counties with high proportion of workers in the creative class. Why? Because many industries and firms had shut down, but the county would still have a school and a hospital, the only major employers left, ergo high creative class. But not really a success story.<\/p>\n

Third, is growth in the ‘creative class’ going to happen regardless of policy? These are, for the most part, workers in the cost disease neighborhood of the economy. We expect that growth in the jobs listed above would occur, at the expense of jobs in high productivity growth (through capital for labor substitution) sectors. That’s why health and education and the arts keep getting more expensive: you can’t provide consistent levels of quality while cutting the workforce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent post, Richard Florida looks at the growth in the ‘creative class’ in US metro areas since the year 2000. The biggest increase is in what was, in 2000, a city not known for creative class workers, Las Vegas. Indianapolis, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Cincinnati also post large (above 20%) gains in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/strings.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-uN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1483,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/08\/how-should-we-rank-the-culturalcreative-scenes-of-cities\/","url_meta":{"origin":1909,"position":0},"title":"How should we rank the cultural\/creative scenes of cities?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I came across a ranking of the 'top 20 US cities for culture', from the real estate blog propertyshark.com (no, not one I usually follow, h\/t Ted Gioia). The internet loves to produce listicles, and diminishing returns have long set in when it comes to ranking cities. But this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"so many creatives!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/NYC-street.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/NYC-street.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/NYC-street.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/NYC-street.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1926,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2015\/12\/the-creative-class-wont-save-your-arts-organizations\/","url_meta":{"origin":1909,"position":1},"title":"The creative class won’t save your arts organizations","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"December 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's talk about Hartford. I've never been to Connecticut, but in the past week I have read two stories about Hartford, and it is interesting to think about the links, if any. First, the symphony is in financial troubles. Dan Haar of the Hartford Courant reports, \"The symphony is bleeding\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The greatest","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/howe.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1931,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2015\/12\/performing-arts-and-cities-and-again-the-creative-class\/","url_meta":{"origin":1909,"position":2},"title":"Performing arts and cities and (again) the creative class","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"December 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A new study just published in the academic journal Economic Development Quarterly looks at the links between big (budget over $2 million) performing arts organizations and the change in the proportion of the metro workforce that is in Richard Florida's definition of the 'creative class'. The article, by Arthur Nelson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"'Hey, they're doing Mahler's 4th tonight\"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/creative-class-at-work.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/creative-class-at-work.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/creative-class-at-work.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/creative-class-at-work.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/creative-class-at-work.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2356,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2018\/08\/back-to-school-a-cultural-planning-syllabus\/","url_meta":{"origin":1909,"position":3},"title":"Back to school – a cultural planning syllabus","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"So after a stretch in university administration, I am back full-time in the classroom this fall. One of my classes is in Cultural Planning and Community Development - i.e. \"place-based\" cultural policy - and though I've taught bits and pieces of the subject here and there, have never had the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"do we have to do *all* the readings?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/back-to-class.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/back-to-class.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/back-to-class.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/back-to-class.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1156,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/03\/gays-the-creative-class-and-the-ecological-fallacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1909,"position":4},"title":"Gays, the ‘Creative Class’, and the Ecological Fallacy","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Gay men tend to live in expensive cities with nice amenities, both cultural and climactic. Does that mean they are rich? At the Atlantic, Nathan McDermott reports: Who are America\u2019s gays? To hear it as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would have it, gays are a privileged set, living it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"nice amenities you have here","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1380,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/06\/summer-books-bruce-katz-and-jennifer-bradleys-the-metropolitan-revolution\/","url_meta":{"origin":1909,"position":5},"title":"Summer books: Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley’s ‘The Metropolitan Revolution’","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"June 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A dozen years ago, mayors and their economic development staff made sure they had a copy of Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class on their desks. It was the big new idea that would help them understand the dynamics of contemporary urban growth, and plan for the future\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"next big thing?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/metropolitan-revolution-196x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1913,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions\/1913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}