The Creative Class

The creative class was first popularized by theorist Richard Florida. Florida believes that in order for a city to further develop and thrive economically, it needs a creative class.

“Cities are cauldrons of creativity. They have long been the vehicle for mobilizing, concentrating and channeling human creative energy. They turn that into technical and artistic innovations, new forms of commerce and new industries”
(Cities and the creative class By Richard L. Florida, 2005).

He claims that the world has moved away from the more traditional era of corporations and homogeneity and into the creative era. The creative class is described as a new demographic that is made up of a certain of workforces that is the driving force of any economy. The creative class is composed workers that range from but not limited to architects, engineers, computer scientists, educators and engineers to the more creative individuals such as artists, graphic designers, musicians etc, whose economic function is to create and develop new designs, ideas, technologies and creative content. It is now believed that the creative class makes up for 30 percent of the U.S. workforce.

Florida uses the 'Creative Class Index' to assert his theory on the creative class as a baseline indicator of a region or city's overall standing in the creative economy. This index is broken into five factors: the High Tech Index, an Innovation Index, a Talent Index, a Gay index and a Bohemian Index. Cities with these factors tend to foster a young open, dynamic professional working environment and in turn attracts more creative workforce as well as aiding economic growth.

The majority of Ireland's creative class is in Dublin city. Dublin comes third amongst other European cities with a creative workforce of 36.9 percent, behind first place Copenhagen 62.5 percent and Barcelona 43.9 percent. This was helped be the Celtic Tiger boom over the past ten years which attracted a lot of multinational companies, thus providing a haven for the young and talented workforce to blossom.
Dublin has become a thriving cosmopolitan city that attracts workers from across the globe. It is possible that the percentage of creative class in Dublin has dropped since the economic downturn, but in order for Dublin and Ireland to continue to hold its creative class, its needs to continue to promote and extensively fund education and research. Ireland, currently has the second highest number of Diploma / Certificate graduates in the world and ranks eleventh for Degree graduates. This has been catering for and should continue to provide a foundation for companies to build and utilize these resources.

It is clear that there has been a shift from the industrial economy to an informational economy. Ireland needs promote its creative class as it is now a key economic stimulus and companies and governments should invest in it, which will encourage company formation and attract more to our already flourishing creative class.


Sources:

Cities and the creative class By Richard L. Florida, 2005


Richard Florida's Creative Class


Creative Cities: The Rise of the Creative Class

An Inside Look at Europe's Coolest Cities

Be creative -- or die

Knowledge Ireland Fund would guarantee stability for future funding for R&D says HEA Submission