The Creative Class

The creative class is an interesting thesis that Richard Florida has created. His definition of a class as being “the way people organize themselves into social groupings and common identities based principally on their economic function” is accurate for the most part. Florida argues however that individuals separate themselves into classes based on what they do, or their economic function. Class is normally defined based on economics in the sense that you are separated based on how much money and purchasing power you have. The Creative Class consisting of people “who add economic value through their creativity” and defined based on their social, cultural and lifestyle choices, as Florida describes it, does not agree with my classical understanding of class. The OED defines class as “a system that divides members of a society into sets based on social or economic status". According to this definition the Creative Class is a legitimate description of a class of workers newly forming.

The authors of Creative Class Struggle argue that Florida’s Creative Class does not apply to reality and exists only in an ideal world. They state, “Florida has chosen to celebrate—a system that cannot function without extreme levels of inequality”. They claim that the Creative Class only accounts for around 30% of society and that the other 70% are just left out to dry. They claim that Florida asking people to focus on supporting the Creative Class only hurts other aspects of society, i.e. Florida’s Service Class. I find it interesting how the authors of the Creative Class Struggle are themselves members of Florida’s Creative Class, and actually benefiting from it.

I define class, based on economics as how much money one has, not necessarily what one contributes to the economy. The Creative Class for me, is not a distinct social class, but is grouping of people who participate in similar work. No extra attention and effort by the government should be put into raising the Creative Class. Creative Class Struggle seems to agree with this. I feel that Florida leaves out many members of society and does not promote diversity. If the Creative Class is truly important then things will change over time to accommodate for them.