From Booklist
Florida, an academic whose field is regional economic development, explains the rise of a new social class that he labels the creative class. Members include scientists, engineers, architects, educators, writers, artists, and entertainers. He defines this class as those whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, and new creative content. In general this group shares common characteristics, such as creativity, individuality, diversity, and merit. The author estimates that this group has 38 million members, constitutes more than 30 percent of the U.S. workforce, and profoundly influences work and lifestyle issues. The purpose of this book is to examine how and why we value creativity more highly than ever and cultivate it more intensely. He concludes that it is time for the creative class to grow up--boomers and Xers, liberals and conservatives, urbanites and suburbanites--and evolve from an amorphous group of self-directed while high-achieving individuals into a responsible, more cohesive group interested in the common good. Mary Whaley
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Globe and Mail (Toronto)
"An intellectual tour de force, scholarly yet colorfully written."


Denver Post
"Florida draws a vivid picture of what it takes to make a great 21st-century city."


Fast Company
"A pioneering cartographer of talent."


Book Description
The national bestseller that defines a new economic class and shows how it is key to the future of our cities. The Washington Monthly 2002 Annual Political Book Award Winner The Rise of the Creative Class gives us a provocative new way to think about why we live as we do today-and where we might be headed. Weaving storytelling with masses of new and updated research, Richard Florida traces the fundamental theme that runs through a host of seemingly unrelated changes in American society: the growing role of creativity in our economy. Just as William Whyte's 1956 classic The Organization Man showed how the organizational ethos of that age permeated every aspect of life, Florida describes a society in which the creative ethos is increasingly dominant. Millions of us are beginning to work and live much as creative types like artists and scientists always have-with the result that our values and tastes, our personal relationships, our choices of where to live, and even our sense and use of time are changing. Leading the shift are the nearly 38 million Americans in many diverse fields who create for a living--the Creative Class. The Rise of the Creative Class chronicles the ongoing sea of change in people's choices and attitudes, and shows not only what's happening but also how it stems from a fundamental economic change. The Creative Class now comprises more than thirty percent of the entire workforce. Their choices have already had a huge economic impact. In the future they will determine how the workplace is organized, what companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and even which cities will thrive or wither.


Book Info
Offers innovative and practical lessons for business and workers. Chronicles the ongoing sea-change in people's choices and attitudes, and shows not only what's happening but also how it stems from a fundamental economic change.


About the Author
Richard Florida is the author of the 2002 best-seller The Rise of the Creative Class, which received The Washington Monthly's Political Book Award for that year and was later named by Harvard Business Review as one of the top breakthrough ideas of 2004. The New York Times called it "an important book for those who feel passionately about the future of the urban center." Cities and regions across the United States and the world have embarked on new creativity strategies based on Florida's ideas. His new book, The Flight of the Creative Class, which examines the global competition for creative talent, will be published by HarperBusiness in March 2005. Florida is currently the Hirst Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. Previously, he was the Heinz Professor of Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University, and has been a visiting professor at MIT and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is the founder and principal of two companies: the Creativity Group, an innovative communications and strategies team; and Catalytix, a strategy-consulting firm. Florida earned his Bachelor's degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He lives in Washington, D.C.

FROM THE PUBLISHER