Life in a Spiky World: Implications for Urban Development

Posted by Andree Iffrig Jan 4, 2009

Not everyone is happy with Richard Florida's new book, Who's Your City? The book explores trends in economic development and the rise of what Florida has dubbed the creative class. If Florida's group is right about clustering of industries in a select number of mega-regions, some cities and regions can expect to miss out on prosperity.

The spread of digital technology was supposed to create a level playing field for economic development. Some areas of the developing world will certainly benefit: Bangalore in India is a good example of a city that is capitalizing on the outsourcing of digital technology. Its success speaks to the rise of a creative class in the region, brilliant entrepreneurs and a capacity for innovation.

Examining the growth of mega-regions, Florida demonstrates that where we choose to live does matter; the world is not flat. Talent and creativity are not distributed evenly, in part because those who form the creative class have preferences about the kind of places where they want to live and work.

The maps in Who's Your City? are captivating and illustrate just how unevenly economic development is occurring in the world. In the creative economy, growth comes from concentrations of talented, productive people. The implication of this finding is that future economic growth is likely to result in further disparities between have and have-not regions.

Florida's research on basic personality dimensions and their application to cities is intriguing. Some cities, it transpires, tend to be more conscientious (think of manufacturing centres) while others tend to be neurotic (New York, no surprise) or extroverted (Chicago). Understanding the differences in personality between cities is a first step in deciding where to take up residence and work.

The link between identity and place is the great 21st century theme. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in Florida's next book. Who's Your City? is sufficiently rich that readers will have lots to debate in the interim.