Quality of Place

The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited is an eighteen chapter book published in 2012 by Basic Books and written by Richard Florida, of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and New York University. The author presents a revised and expanded version of his classic work, which pioneered the idea that our society is in the midst of a fundamental economic and cultural shift led by an emerging class of people, defined by their occupations as the Creative Class. He argues that human creativity has become the pivotal force at the heart of current societal change. Supporting his theory with substantial research and grounding his arguments in classic historical and economic thinking, Florida sheds new light on successful Creative Age companChapter 14, Quality of Place (24 pages), looks at how the Creative Class evaluates places to live. Creativity thrives, says the author, in a place that provides opportunities for a range of life stages and not just working families. He examines the decline of community bonds in our society and explains that weak ties are critical to creativity because they enable new people and ideas to take hold. Based on extensive research and surveys, he outlines criteria for what the Creative Class deems valuable, including employment opportunities, lifestyle potential, social interaction, and diversity. Indeed, his research findings indicate that our value system is changing because nearly all people, creative or not, now place great importance on social potential, aesthetic appeal, and other non-economic benefits when deciding where to live.

• Creativity
• Change management
• Talent management
• Innovation
• Finance and investing