Creative Class

The American management consultant and author of the widely acclaimed book The Rise of the Creative Class,1 Richard Florida, has advised on public policy in US cities and in several cities around the world. Florida’s ‘creative class’ thesis is particularly relevant to an understanding of how neoliberal ideology is manifested in the politics of culture, as acknowledged in the following quotation from Trine Billie, a Danish cultural-policy researcher: ‘Florida… introduces a new perspective on economic growth that rests upon the presence of creativity.’2 According to Florida, economic growth is generated by ‘creative-class’ activity. So, he advises governments in partnership with business — especially in cities that have seen better days — to develop cultural amenities that attract young creative types. Thus inspired, Billie has surveyed the cultural preferences of the ‘creative class’ in her own country of Denmark.