Rana Florida is CEO of The Creative Class Group, founded by her husband world renowned urbanist Richard Florida. It is a global advisory firm composed of expert researchers, academics, and business strategists. Their proprietary data and research, gives companies and regions leading insights to achieve growth and prosperity.
Dr. Richard Florida is a world-renowned American urban theorist and public intellectual who focuses on social and economic theory. He’s a professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a Distinguished Fellow of the NYU School of Professional Studies. Over the years, Florida has tried his hand at many roles, from teaching the next generation of academics to working as an editor and correspondent for none other than The Atlantic magazine, where he was appointed Senior Editor in 2011. He majored in political science and earned a degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University. Florida is best known for his concept of the creative class and its implications for urban regeneration, which he articulated in his bestselling books The Rise of the Creative Class (2002), Cities and the Creative Class (2003) and The Flight of the Creative Class (2006). Florida’s theory posits that metropolitan regions with high concentrations of tech workers, artists, musicians, LGBTQ people show higher levels of economic development. Florida refers to these groups collectively as the “creative class”.
Urban life has changed quite a lot since the onset of the Great Recession in 2008. The new “creative class,” comprising technology workers, scientists, architects, artists and writers, has been migrating from the suburbs to “superstar cities” including San Francisco, Boston and New York, according to Richard Florida, global research professor at the New York University School of Professional Studies. Florida headlined the Urban Lab panel organized by the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate on Oct. 13.
On the first day of the educational project Made In Kazan the listeners expert classes made Richard Florida – economist, urbanist, author of the theory of the creative class, the professor of the School of Management named Joseph Rothman at the University of Toronto. “Indus” publishes a summary of his lectures.
When it came to shortlisting applications for LE Miami, THE REBELS, to decide what the creative class really want we drafted in help from
the real thing: meet our 2016 judges and bona fide members of the
creative class – who better to identify those rebellious brands at the
cutting edge of contemporary travel?
Richard Florida, on the occasion of the Jane Jacobs centennial, talks about Jacobs’ enduring legacy, her role in helping shape his work, the state of cities today, and his current projects.
CCG’s latest research, insights and trends on the Creative Class traveler to be unveiled at Le Miami show in June 2016.
In 2002, the American economist and sociologist Richard Florida published the book “The Rise of the Creative Class”, which became a bestseller. Florida made a close connection between the future development of cities and the development of the “creative class”: Cities will flourish if they are able to attract these rising stars of the 21st century and persuade them to be long-term residents.
Catalyst asks Richard to share his insights on the ‘multiplier’ effect of the creative class and why local public officials should leverage arts and culture as policy tools for fostering unique and thriving communities from the ground up.
SKIFT speaks with Florida after the Start Up City Miami event to hear how this urban disruption in downtown cores is impacting cities as tourism destinations, and how tourism bureaus can potentially shift their narrative to support them better.
An ever-growing group of
Americans is proving vital to
our society. Its members are
educated, employed in a variety
of industries, and engaged in a
lifestyle that values individuality,
originality, and participation.
They’re steadfast in their
goals, resolute in their attitudes
and ideals, and just plain happy
with the paths they’ve decided
to follow-so much so that
they are reshaping commerce
and communities.They are the “Creative Class”.
Renowned urbanist Richard Florida sat down with The Tyee’s Geoff Dembicki for a conversation about whether ‘creatives’ are driving the new economy or falling behind.
Vancouver is growing more divided as blue collar workers are priced out of the urban core, says author
Richard Florida chats about Karl
Kautsky, Karl Marx, and other urban
creative types.
The Martin Prosperity Institute, urban guru Richard Florida’s think tank, released a report full of maps offering a new lens to look at cities through. “The Divided City and the Shape of the New Metropolis” uses census data to highlight residential neighborhoods in U.S. by class.
San Francisco is one of the most innovative and creative places on the planet. But the very forces that are making San Francisco boom are also dividing it.
A new analysis from Richard Florida on how the creative class is dividing cities.
A new report released today by Richard Florida and the Martin Prosperity Institute (MPI) at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, finds America’s cities and metro areas to be strikingly divided by class. The report, released to the City Lab Conference of Mayors and City Leaders in Los Angeles, maps the stark class divisions within 12 of America’s largest cities and metro areas. Americans, it finds, are not only separated by income and race, but by socio-economic class.
Richard Florida’s The Creative Class and Economic Development most read article during July 2014.
Rapidly growing Asia will be better served by a system of cities – not a
dominant city, but many competitive cities.
The rise of the ‘creative class’ as the motor of economic growth means that countries which promote technology, talent and tolerance will do best. Will this lead to higher inequality? Not necessarily argues Richard Florida.
The eight-part film series called “Unlock Art,” developed by London’s Tate Museum in collaboration with Le Méridien Hotels explains the historical and commercial precedents for contemporary art’s development with a whimsical, plain-speak delivery, offering a surprisingly in depth yet easily digestible overview of modern art.
“For a place to harness creativity, it must be open to the creativity of all. Not just techies or the creative class, but everyone,” argues Richard Florida. For the author of The Rise of the Creative Class, openness is a key factor in a city’s economic growth.
Talent. Technology. Talent. Those are the “three T’s” that Richard Florida, an internationally known urban theorist, says will vault a community toward positive change. Local leaders believe Utica already possesses those T’s, but they need a catalyst.
Twenty-five years ago, Pittsburgh hosted the Remaking Cities Conference, an international gathering of architects, visionaries and dignitaries, including England’s Prince Charles, the honorary co-host and keynote speaker. This year, Oct. 15-–18, 2013, Carnegie Mellon University will host the Remaking Cities Congress, with 300 invited urbanists and thought leaders who will again focus on the post-industrial city in North America and Europe. In that context, they have asked 10 thought leaders to assess the Pittsburgh region’s strengths and weaknesses and to consider what they would like to see in the Pittsburgh of the future. The package begins with a foreword from noted urbanist Richard Florida.
Richard Florida heralds successful cities as those that attract and keep a creative citizenry. Toronto is a perfect
manifestation of his “Three T’s” index of good city building: technology,
tolerance, and talent. Author Katrina Onstad takes a closer look at how the Three T’s of Toronto play out on the
streets, so invites five local “creative class” guides to show her the
neighborhoods they love.
The dustbin of history is littered with dire predictions about the effects of technology. They frequently come to the fore in periods in which economies and societies are in the throes of sweeping transformation—like today.The key to a broadly shared prosperity lies in new social and economic arrangements that more fully engage, not ignore and waste, the creative talents of all of our people.
Omaha’s quality of living appeals to what Richard Florida calls the ‘Creative Class’.
For Prof Florida, Abu Dhabi’s future economic success will be determined not by the efforts that it has made thus far, although he admits these have provided an essential foundation, but by its success in attracting and retaining members of an increasingly global and internationally mobile group of knowledge-based workers he has dubbed the “Creative Class”.
What does it take to revitalize Atlantic City and other places hit hard by the recession, the housing-market collapse and the vanishing manufacturing industry? Economist Richard Florida answers by looking at how this market upheaval differs from others in American history.
Income and wealth inequality have risen to record levels in the United States. Even as cities have become the new social and economic organizing units of our increasingly spiky world, their inequalities are approaching levels found in Third World nations.
Florida’s 2002 bestseller, “The Rise of the Creative Class,” has sparked many debates about the relative importance of creativity to the economic health of cities. In his new book, “The Rise of the Creative Class — Revisited,” Florida reiterates, updates and expands on his bottom line: “Cities need a people climate as much, and perhaps even more, than they need a business climate.” Paul Fanlund interviews Richard Florida asking him a series of Madison-centric questions.
Florida speaks at COSI at the 2012 Innovate Columbus event presented by TechColumbus and the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. Columbus Underground’s Walker had the opportunity to chat with Richard to learn a bit more about how his ideas apply specifically to Columbus, and to preview what we can expect during his presentation.
America is famed for its principles of equality — but renowned researcher Richard Florida says conditions have shifted so much nowadays that “the fundamental fact about America is its gaping inequality.”
Richard Florida, father of the ‘creative class’ concept, finds one at work in his new part-time hometown of Miami, Florida.
Florida has published several books on the theme of the creative class including, most recently, The Rise of the Creative Class Revisited, a substantial revision of his 2002 volume.
The thrust of Florida’s thesis is unchanged: growth of creative industries depends on the “3Ts” — technology, talent and social tolerance. But he has refined his arguments and updated statistical evidence.
Transcript for Big Think interview with Richard Florida on the ever-widening gap between creative workers and service workers, and what businesses should do about it.
Richard Florida on the ever-widening gap between creative workers and service workers, and what businesses should do about it.
Journalist Jon Talton talks to Richard Florida about his new book, The Rise of the Creative Class Revisited.
Excerpted with permission from The Rise of the Creative Class Revisited: 10th Anniversary Edition, by Richard Florida. The tectonic upheavals our economy is enduring are the result not just of financial shenanigans by the global One Percent, but of a deeper and more fundamental shift — the passing of the old industrial order as it gives way to the emerging Creative Economy. If we wish to build lasting prosperity we cannot rely on market forces and the Invisible Hand alone to guide us. The grand challenge of our time is to invent new institutional structures that will guide the emergence of a new economic order, while channeling its energies in ways that benefit society as a whole.
Richard Florida on how to help lower-income New Yorkers climb the city’s increasingly slippery economic ladder. Behind New York’s encouraging news is a troubling trend: Huge numbers of middle and especially lower income
people continue to struggle. To complete its transition, New York must develop strategies that enable many more of its workers to benefit from the ongoing transformation of its economy.
RAINE Magazine recently caught up with Mr.
Florida to gain insight on what is coming up in the new book, The Rise of the Creative Class Revisted and why his research and analysis of the creative class is so innovative.
Urban Times’, Josh O’Conner, interviews Richard Florida in conjunction with the release of his new book The Rise of the Creative Class Revisited.
This article in the National Journal is an abridged version of the preface to The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited, out this month from Basic Books.
Artists, innovators, and diversity have earned Worcester the #14 spot in best-selling author, Richard Florida’s newest book, The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited.
Excerpted with permission from The Rise of the Creative Class Revisited: 10th Anniversary Edition, by Richard Florida.
As his ‘The Rise of the Creative Class’ reaches its tenth anniversary, Richard Florida has a plan to keep the artists from starving. It involves a lot more than art. Florida describes how creatives have fared relatively well in the economic downturn of the time between editions of the book.
In Richard Florida’s new book The Rise of the Creative Class Revisited, he’s compiled a list of the top tech cities in the U.S.Seattle, home to Microsoft and Amazon, claims the top place from Silicon Valley, which ranked first in his last book. Silicon Valley, which consists of the San Jose metro area, ranks second followed by the greater San Francisco area. Portland, Oregon claims the fourth spot followed by Austin.
This article was adapted from Richard Florida’s new book “The Rise of the Creative Class Revisited” from Basic Books. His nitial research over a decade ago identified the rise of the creative class as a key factor in America’s cities and economy overall. What has struck him since is that the effects of class are not just limited to cities, jobs and the economy. Class increasingly structures virtually every aspect of our society, culture and daily lives — from our politics and religion to where we live and how we get to work, from the kind of education we can provide for our children to our very health and happiness.
Raine Magazine’s interview with Rana Florida on understanding the Creative Class.
In this newest installment of our Creative Spaces series, we have assembled a slideshow to celebrate and congratulate those pioneers, some of whom we’ve worked with at CCG, who are envisioning and actualizing new ways of living and working.
In this new millennium, the most influential class in society is something Richard Florida calls the “Creative Class” who boost the economy not through financial ability or skill alone, but rather through their ideas.
National Geographic Traveler interview with Richard Florida. Florida says society’s success is inextricably bound to the success of our great cities. And yet, the growing concentration of
wealth and human capital in urban areas is leading to greater inequality, with a person’s prosperity determined
increasingly by location. Florida explores social and economic trends in his numerous books.
Fast Company continues its Leadership Hall of Fame series, a year-long look at the top business books and authors, with an excerpt from The Rise of the Creative Class (2003) by Richard Florida
Interesting perspective for Miami’s economic future, from bestselling author and economic development expert Richard Florida, who finds market trends reveal a rising of the creative class. While Florida acknowledges the difficulty of our current economy, he also depicts the composition for the possibilities.
Outlining his plan to create a rival to Silicon Valley in the East End of London on November 4th, Mr Cameron paid tribute to Richard Florida, an American urban economist, for devising a blueprint for government’s role in the economy.
We need to recognize that a whole new economy and society based upon creativity and innovation is emerging and that, as a consequence, it is of vital importance that we reinvent our communities, our schools, our businesses, our government to meet the challenges such major structural shifts present.
LA is the place where people come to create and innovate. That’s what Richard Florida is pointing out in his research on artists and cultural “creatives” in his Atlantic blog.
Reconstructing the Icelandic economy will take more than increased fishing quotas. More than a new aluminium smelter. It will require a new way of thinking. Professor Florida coined the term ‘the creative class’ to identify a socio-economic class of people that he believes will drive economic growth in modern societies through creativity.
Dramatic change has come to the Blue States of the Northeast, once Republican bastions turned solidly Democratic.
Richard Florida shares his views on what needs to happen if cities are to succeed.
For those who hold strongly to the belief that cities are the engines of development, Florida’s thesis on the clustering of creative people has provided a concrete path to development. What the urban managers and planners have to do is to attract creative people to their cities.
In an interview with EurActiv, Richard Florida, author of ‘The Rise of the Creative Class’, said European countries are battling to attract and retain innovative people.
The creative class – innovative knowledge workers in all sectors of the economy – will rule the 21st century. So argued social scientist Richard Florida in a seminal article (and later a book), written in 2002. But what does it mean for creative class employees to show leadership? And what does this imply for conventional leadership?
An in depth interview with Richard Florida on the creative class and a most interesting palm reading.
According to Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class: And How it’s Transforming Work, Leisure,
Community and Everyday Life, members of the creative class are very different from those who are employed in the manufacturing, service or agriculture industries. They contribute to our economy primarily by producing the new forms and ideas exploited by our various industries and decision-makers.If Toronto is serious about maintaining – or, hopefully, improving – its national and international presence in the world’s markets, it may be a good idea to foster an atmosphere that not only attracts such individuals, but also encourages and promotes those ideas and new forms they produce.
The surge of art galleries in Omaha’s old warehouse district reflects a national trend, said Richard Florida, author of the bestselling book “The Rise of the Creative Class” and a renowned expert on urban renewal and the arts.
An interview with Richard Florida who believes attracting talented people is the driving force behind successful cities.
Richard Florida, director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and author of The Rise of the Creative Class (among other books) is the leading guru of the creative economy. Here’s his recipe for baking a successful creative age economy.
This article takes at look at Richard Florida’s recently published research on America’s music scenes.
Richard Florida discusses the rise of “means metros” in an article on McKinsey & Co.’s blog. These are the urban areas that in recent decades have gathered a disproportionate share of America’s most talented workers. Seattle is among this elite few.
Richard Florida says creative workers constitute 30 percent of the American work force and earn 50 percent of the salaries.
He offers advice for working with your creative staff.
Richard Florida gave voice to a movement to revitalize cities by attracting and nurturing the “creative class” . There is no shortage of evidence of the power of the creative class to transform post-industrial cities, but how music, along with the companies that follow and feed it, contribute to the Creative Class is just beginning to get special attention.
The City of Roanoke engaged in a year-long Creative Communities Leadership project that gives emerging leaders the tools they need to generate greater economic prosperity in their region.
One of the nation’s foremost experts in economy building says that a community seeking a strong and healthy commerce must tap into the creativity of all its members. Author and adviser Richard Florida will bring his message to Naples on May 20, 2009 when he addresses community and business leaders at a program entitled “It Pays to Be Creative,” part of the ongoing Project Innovation sponsored by the Economic Development Council of Collier County.
The world needs to grow in a way that it can meet the needs of today while preserving the resources for tomorrow. Global City 2009 held in Abu Dhabi recently highlighted some seminal issues confronting urban development – and the way cities must tackle them.
There is currently a flurry of media attention on Detroit as a haven for enterprising young artists. Can artists really save a piece of a “ruined city,” a “dying city,” a city that has defied all other attempts at renewal? What has yet to be acknowledged, however, is how an artistic revival of Detroit might present the city with challenges in its very success.
Florida argues that cities are the hubs of today’s “creative class,” which is propelling a new economy that prospers by virtue of its urban aggregation.
Urbanist Jane Jacobs’ idea of the successful city is central to the theory — an adaptive place where new ideas and people gather in numbers and then are “tossed together in serendipitous ways,” as Seltzer puts it. This sort of open city attracts creative people, according to the research of author Richard Florida, especially young creative people. And the more of them, the better-placed a city is for the next economy.
University of Toronto professor Florida argued in his groundbreaking 2002 book, The Rise of the Creative Class, that the young, urban creative types who are revitalizing cities tend to be far more socially liberal and tolerant of diversity than the average evangelical.
Richard Florida’s thought provoking and revolutionary ideas about the future of housing and economic development.
In a partnership with the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto – headed by urban thinker Richard Florida – the city of Toronto will spend $10,000 on an international conference called Placing Creativity this June on “cultural mapping.”
Florida is a leading advocate of developing culturally vibrant communities, saying they attract the ‘creative classes,’ leading to economic growth by building a city where people want to live, play, work and invest. This would be a refreshing direction, one that could add charm and creativity to downtown Barrie, fostering a ‘sense of place.’
Richard Florida, has urged President-elect Barack Obama to eschew crude investments in traditional production and a renewed housing market in favor of goodies directed to what he calls the creative industry.
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to strengthen the federal commitment to our cities and it’s importance is seen with his creation of a new position, the White House Office of Urban Policy. Along these lines is Richard Florida’s view that the concept of the creative class of workers is a key element of metropolitan stability and progress.
New Brunswick’s Frye Festival has given residents and visitors to the province a plethora of special events year round helping to make it the type of “creative” city Richard Florida talks about.
Richard Florida, author of “Who’s Your City?” and director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, sees the gravitational pull away from Wall Street and toward more creative industries as part of a necessary economic recalibration.
Kevin Stolarik who works closely with Richard Florida spends a lot of time thinking about cities, the people who live there and why they live there.
Richard Florida speaks at the Creative Cities Summit 2.0 in Detroit, Michigan suggesting market turmoil is a sign of fundamental economic change.
A study, by professor John Solow in the Tippie College of Business, ranks all of Iowa’s 99 counties in a Creativity Index based on the one developed by economist Richard Florida, author of the national bestseller “The Rise of the Creative Class.”
A new study by a University of Iowa economics professor suggests that Iowa counties with a higher concentration of people who are part of the so-called “creative class” have stronger prospects for economic growth.
Richard Florida asserts in his book The Rise of the Creative Class that today’s regional economic growth is driven by the location choices of creative people, who prefer places that are diverse, tolerant, and open to new ideas.
Perhaps the most influential in terms of its impact on modern urban planning is US academic Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class, first published in 2002.
A popular economic development guru believes that a region’s tolerance and diversity, its quality of life and its support for what he describes as the “creative class” pave the way for economic and population growth. According to Richard Florida: “The distinguishing characteristic of the creative class is that its members engage in work whose function is to ‘create meaningful new forms.’ “
According to American sociologist Richard Florida, it was the “creative class” that swung victory for Barack Obama in the recent US Democratic nominations.
For The Realtor.Com Addict Who Dreams Of Living Somewhere Else-If She Could Only Figure Out Where
“The party that can bring together the working class and the creative class is likely to build a lasting majority”
Memphis, TN had a new kind of blues. Despite its rich history and amenities, and strong economic engines such as the FedEx headquarters, the city was losing annual job earnings, mainly because it could not hold on to young, bright talent. The 2000 census showed that Memphis’ population grew by 6,000 since 1995, but its net income had dropped by $90 million.
Richard Florida believes creative people come in all colours and that they are the key to the new economy. If he didn’t already have a catchy name, Richard Florida could easily be dubbed Mr. T. His celebrated theory of economic prosperity is based on Four T’s. And it was his T for Tolerance that landed the personable American professor in Capital T Trouble when he flew into Noosa last November and media coverage played the gay card.
Nations have long been considered the fundamental economic units of the world, but that distinction no longer holds true. Today, the natural units -and engines- of the global economy are megaregions, cities and suburbs in powerful conurbations, at times spanning national borders, forming vast swaths of trade, transport, innovation and talent.
In an exclusive excerpt, the guru of the Creative Class explains the peaks and valleys of the global economy.
Spark Con, a creative conference in Raleigh and how Richard’s ideas play a role
By Richard Florida, Across the Board: the Conference Board Magazine – Sept 1994
By Richard Florida and Mark Samber, The New Industrial Geography: Regions, Regulation and Institutions – Jan 1999
The Unites States built the most powerful economy by producing and attracting human capital. Is America throwing that advantage away?
By Richard Florida, A report prepared for the Regional Plan Association and the Civic Alliance – April 2002
By Meric S. Gertler, Richard Florida, Gary Gates, Tara Vinodrai – A report prepared for the Ontario Ministry of Enterprise, Opportunity, and Innovation and the Institute for Competitiveness and Creativity – Nov 2002
