This week, we will look at the increasing importance of lifestyles and the rise of the so-called “creative class” for urban economies. We have already discussed the central importance of cultural consumption driving urban economies, as cities have gone from ‘places of production’ during the industrial era to places of consumption in the post-modern or service sector economy. As increasingly thriving, eclectic, and bustling places to work and live, cities have become popular destinations again for both the middle class and companies alike. Indeed, the creative class seems to capture this duality as the group suggests both an economic group as well as a set of cultural lifestyle practices that are shaping the urban landscape.
An important aspect of this particular form of urban revitalization, is the central role of artists and bohemians attracting the so-called creative class or bobo’s back to the city. While the artists themselves lack the resources to shape the neighborhoods they inhabit, their particular form of cultural capital seems to attract the creative class’s spending power that shapes both the commercial and real estate market of those neighborhoods. In both attracting and being attracted to the cutting edge industries now located in the central city, the creative class (and by proxy, the artist) has had a powerful influence over city planners looking for a relatively low investment strategies for revitalization. This “artistic mode of production” draws on the argument that many of the authors we have read, including Sharon Zukin and Richard Lloyd, have said about the “useful” labor artists now perform in the contemporary city.
The article, “Urban Lifestyles: Diversity and Standardisation in Spaces of Consumption” by Sharon Zukin draws on how the attention to lifestyles mirrors the changes in the consumption of space. I concluded that the thesis of this article is, “Alternatively, we can relate urban lifestyles to models of modernity, strategies of urban redevelopment and urban politics and cultures.” (826)
Using a generous amount of examples, Zukin argues that no longer are people living in the city to work in industrial means of production but rather they come to consume entertainment and culture. The strategies of urban redevelopment are focused on consumptions; make the environment safe, and clean which makes people spend their money. Zukin refers to this strategy as “Disney World’s consumption regime”. The visual appeal of a clean, safe, public space where strangers trust each other and can ‘have fun’. (832) She then explains the new look on diversity in ‘urban lifestyles’ “as a source of cultural vitality and economic renewal.” (836) These types of cultural consumptions then lead to gentrification. Attracting non-natives to an ‘urban space’ causing change in that space.
In the New Urban Sociology chapter “People and Lifestyles on the Metropolis”, the division of classes and the structure of these class systems are broken down and explained. One of the biggest points of the article was that your class is already predetermined for you when you are born, it is difficult to break out of your predetermied class. Another issue about class structure is the isolation that lower class areas are facing. These areas are completely cut off from the affluent middle/upper class. These class issues were really eye opening and somewhat discouraging.
In David Brooks’s “Bobos in Paradise, the sociological development of a new, contemporary upper class is examined. What used to exist on opposite ends of the social and spectrum, the bohemians and bourgeois, seem to have merged into one singular group which has “crushed the old WASP culture, thrived in an economy that lavishly rewards their practical skills, and now sit atop many of the same institutions they once railed against” (Brooks 40). This new upper class is described as a more rebellious youth compared to their predecessors who were a generation that moved to suburbs across the nation in the 1950’s and held elitist qualities.
Interestingly, this new generation brought the same economic influence their parents had but began to move to the city with a new embrace of meritocracy and bohemian traits. This group had lasting affects on cities everywhere since the 1970’s and the author argues that acknowledging this new class is important in understanding what is going on in today’s urban societies.
In “The Creative Class,” by Richard Florida there is a discussion of who is a part of the creative class and what it takes to be a part of that. He discusses the importance of education and the ways that these people focus on complex problem solving. There is also an emphasis on the diversity and openness that are supposedly a substantial part of what the creative class stands for.
The issue with this is that it doesn’t often work that way, Richard Florida recognizes that there is an issue in regards to the lack of black employees in high-tech industry. The problem is that Florida seems to gloss over this, not doing much to go through the ways that marginalized groups are often exempt from this class.
Group Two:
In Bohemia and Economic Geography, Richard Florida analyzes the geography of bohemia as well as the correlation between bohemia, human capital, and the high-technology industry. He breaks down the research he’s done to support his theory with that of qualitative and quantitative research, gathered by interviews and focus groups. It uses a new form of measurement, referred to as the bohemian index, that takes measure of the population of the bohemian at the MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) level. HIs research is broken down by: Bohemian Index, Human Capital, Diversity/Openness, High-technology Industry, and Statistical/Econometric Analysis. The talent index of human capital is people who are highly educated and are categorized as those who have at least a bachelor’s degree. Diversity and Openness examines the relation of bohemians to diversity, such as foreign people and homosexuals. Florida then examines the effect of bohemians and the location of high-technology industries. Florida concludes that his research does in fact support his hypothesis, but that areas that are concentrated with bohemians, create a surrounding that is found attractive by creative and talented people, which creates the environment for the development of high-technology industries.
In Sharon Zukin’s article, “Urban Lifestyles: Diversity and Standardization in Spaces of Consumption” she discusses urban redevelopment. She points out that urban redevelopment focuses on attractions that attract people, that make them spend money. Urban redevelopment must take in to play, aesthetics as well as options. People that travel to the city want to have various options on where to eat, what shows to see, what museums to go to. This is where urban redevelopment comes into play. Zukin also provides an example of a study taken by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey which had results that showed that tourists primarily come to New York to partake in theatre showings and art shows. She further explains that New York’s government capitalizes on cultural establishments to maintain New York as a sought out destination and a huge cultural hub.
In Richard Florida’s “The Creative Class,” he discusses the rise of a new socio-economic class which is based on the creation of new concepts and innovation rather than producing materials (pg. 129). This new creative class is broken up into two different groups consisting of the “Super-Creative Core” and the “Creative Professionals(”pg. 129). Those in the first group set out to create “new forms or designs that are readily transferable and widely useful” while those in the second “engage in creative problem solving, drawing on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems” (131). The people in both of these group are apart of what Florida refers to as the X Class, for they are self- determined people who love their work (pg. 130). Furthermore, Florida believes that the Creative Class will aid the economy through the creativity of its members, though not through the matters of owning property but rather through thought and innovation (pg. 130).