Star Expert:
If you haven't yet encountered this book, the following Q and A with Lone Star College-North Harris economics professor, Dr. Rami Shafiee should get you through conversations at the water cooler and help you decide whether it belongs on your own reading table. Dr. Shafiee is an award-winning educator, responsible for development and instruction of courses in Economics and Sociology including macro and microeconomics, managerial economics, economic development, economics of social issues and economic geography. He serves on the Mayoral Advisory Board for International Affairs and Business Development.
Were you an early advocate of The Creative Class?
No. My initial impression was not favorable. It was newly published when a friend showed it to me. I thought to myself: Here comes a new fad, or at best, an old reality dressed up to look like a trendy new idea. It was only after I read a review of Florida's book in The Economist a few months later that I bought my own copy and found that it's based on concrete economic research. Since reading the book, I've been very interested in its powerful impact on policymakers and community leaders across the nation. Now I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in the future of our communities. It deserves its place on the national bestseller lists.
So who and what are meant by Dr. Florida's term, “Creative Class”
He defines the “Creative Class” as 38 million Americans; 30 percent of all employed people. They work in science and engineering, architecture and design, education, arts, music and entertainment. Their economic function is to produce new ideas, new technology or “creative content.” Around this core, he identifies “creative professionals” in business, finance, law, health care and related fields.
How significant is this concept?
You can compare the impact of this book with Megatrend by John Naisbitt, but I think Florida's work is much stronger on documented research and will have a more lasting impact on our institutions. In a very short time, he has started lively and constructive discussions in many different arenas and in particular among those in leadership positions responsible for planning our future. As a long time student of economics I've learned to love the fact that economics is an evolutionary science. We learn from observing and understanding the changing economic trends and the social indicators that go with them.
In our agricultural past, land and labor created value. The industrial age made the ownership of capital the driving force behind value creation with labor still in subservient role. Now, creative capacity is the primary indicator of economic activities. In the industrial context, workers locate near the factory, traveling back and forth. Today's creative workers may live and work in the same space. And they can locate just about anywhere. The new labor market provides “Horizontal Hypermobility” -- people moving from job to job rather than up a ladder in one place. The areas chosen by creative workers offer green space and possibilities for an active life style
What is meant by the “No-Collar” workplace?
That's less about dress codes than about the fact that today's architects, scientists, musicians and writers don't fit the standard definitions of blue collar or white collar. As a community college educator, one example certainly caught my eye. The book states that more and more students entering community colleges around the country are choosing to be trained to work in a hair salon rather than to develop skills for employment in a machine shop. Hair salon work is typically blue collar and lower wages. But these days, both male and females see the hair salon job as the more creative environment. I like the story of a Korean girl in New York who wanted to work in a nail salon. She got a lot of resistance from her family. But she was an entrepreneur and she now owns five nail salons. And you can't export the jobs of hairdressers and people in childcare or health care.
What is Dr. Florida's prescription for cities like Houston?
The book identifies three “Ts” of economic development today: technology, talent and tolerance and uses census data and economic research to develop several indices of attractiveness for the Creative Class. There's an Inequality Index, a Tolerance Index, a Creativity Index, a High-Tech Index, a Gay Index, a Bohemian Index, and a Child-Friendly Score. Florida provides a very good case for his conclusions by comparing and contrasting these indices. Hiring for diversity was once a matter of compliance. Now it's a matter of economic survival because creativity comes in all colors, gender and personal preferences. Openness is key.
One interesting finding is that areas with high tolerance for diversity are more attractive to single mothers; they feel safer. They tend to get involved with community organizations so that neighborhoods and their real estate values improve. Colleges and universities serve as creativity hubs since they can develop new technology, bring in talent and improve tolerance within their region.
What's your view of Houston's appeal to the Creative Class?
Overall, our Houston region ranks in the top 30 percent among 131 regions with populations greater than one million. But while our region looks very attractive there is surely room for improvement. It's nice that Austin's #1. We can surely study the Austin-San Antonio region as an extremely successful model to emulate especially in areas such as tolerance where we can do better.
It's important to understand that the data Dr. Florida used is more than five years old. But it could be a very useful tool for us to apply going forward. I think our region is best positioned to take advantage of our talented labor force. But we may want to improve our technology focus and attend more to initiatives such as Houston Technology Center, Houston Area Research Consortium and NASA. We need to keep building these kinds of assets because the talented people in technology will move if they don't have good career opportunities
I think we have all those ingredients that made Austin successful but we have not articulated these values nationally; they are imbedded. For example, the music side of Austin has resulted from years of development. We have little pockets of the same thing in Conroe, Clear Lake, Downtown and the West Side. But there's no 6th Street; no common umbrella. In many of the Quality of Life issues, we already have what it takes; we just need to speak up!
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