We have spent the semester discussing THE RISE OF THE CREATIVE CLASS REVISITED, and explored the viability of Richard Florida’s theory both as academic analysis and as real-world economic and urban planning theory. Florida has been working with corporations and municipalities for over a decade implementing the ideas he has written and rewritten.
My position on this is that it works.
For your final project, you are going to create a project that asks a direct, yet complex question:
Does it work?
Is the Creative Class theory a viable one in delivering economic prosperity and social justice? Are there problems in the theory that need to be further corrected? Or is the theory flawed as a vehicle to deliver jobs and healthy neighborhoods – and in delivering “social justice,” however it is defined?
To answer this question, you are going to seek out a “case study.” That is, you are going to look for an individual who you believe works in a field that Florida would classify as being a part of the Creative Class, through their career or job. This could be someone who, for example runs a non-profit, is a designer, is a teacher – someone who is engaged in work that seems to fit the theory.
Once identified, you will conduct an interview with that person. You will then take that interview and conduct a research paper, using the responses from the interview, Florida’s book, and other independent research you will conduct to essentially “test” the answers through the research. The goal: is the work your interviewee doing consistent with the kind of work Florida describes in the book – and does that work help to show that the Creative Class is workable or not?
