Our colleague and friend, Cindy Romaine, has just been reading an interesting book titled The Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida.  Here’s her review.  Looks like a good read.

The author’s premise, based on an economic shift to a society based on human intelligence, knowledge and creativity, is “that place is the key economic and social organizing unit of our time, it provides the ecosystem to harness human creativity.”

Interestingly, Florida found that, in the new economy, places with high concentrations of gays and bohemians have higher rates of innovation and economic growth. The presence of gays and bohemians indicate a culture that is open minded and therefore conductive to creativity and innovation. His “creativity index” is based on a place’s tolerance, talent and technology. (My home town of Portland Oregon ranks 6th on the list. Canadian cities are not included, unfortunately.)

Politicians fretting about the economic development of their region, say we are turning out too many hairdressers and cosmetologists and not enough skilled factory workers. But, according to Florida’s research people choose occupations such as hairdressers and cosmetologists because a more stimulating environment ultimately matters more than compensation.

He defines the creative class quite broadly, as scientists, engineers, artists, musicians, designers and knowledge-based professionals. Since his categorization includes information professionals his conclusions affect our work and profession!

–Cindy Romaine, cindy.romaine@comcast.net