Following the election of New Labour, the government coined the term ‘The Creative Industries’ in a new priority to further the economy through the use of culture, creativity and the talents of society. These creative industries require innovative and creative people, for example scientists, designers and editors (Florida 2019), to come to cities to boost these industries. What draws these people to a location? Lifestyle.
Richard Florida (2002), an urbanist and professor, created ‘ The Creativity Index’ as a way to measure the appeal of a city, saying that cities must be cool and interesting. Out with generic malls and stadiums and in with art galleries, musicians, bistros and a wealth of outdoor activities. When looking at UNESCO’s (2007) Creative Cities Network, these ideas are what Florida was talking about. ‘Strong historic and cultural backgrounds’ with the ability to innovate, links to the arts and food. When looking at California’s website (Figure 1: Visit California, 2019), which rated number 1 on the Creativity Index, it discusses food, the arts and architecture, things which appeal to the creative class. Clearly in the case of San Francisco, it has the ingredients for a successful creative city.
Figure 1: A screenshot of Visit California’s San Francisco page, highlighting the cultural attractions
Florida (2002), goes on to say that Creative Cities attract ‘bohemians’, ‘gays’ and different ethnicities to be desirable to the creative class as this promotes acceptance and diversity, this is because a number of the creative people have grown up as outsiders. I wonder if this is always the case and I would argue that diversity leads to a range of knowledge and experience. When looking at creative industries documents by UNESCO (2007) and the British Council(2010) words like ‘diversity’ and ‘social inclusion’ are included. A video on their website (Figure 2: Visit California, 2019) then gives off warm, diverse and welcoming vibes.
Figure 2: Visit California’s San Francisco’s video with the #AlwaysWelcome. Highlighting the diverse and friendly ethos.
While San Francisco is an obvious creative city, when one looks at the map of creative cities (figure 3, UNESCO), there are some surprising choices, for example Baghdad, which is hailed for its Literacy with its history, poetry festivals and the fact it publishes in a range of languages. Those desirables for creative minds. Furthermore, it is investing in young people and women (UNESCO 2018). This is key as McRobbie (2016) highlights, women are attracted and are suited to creativity and are craving equality in the field. However, it could be argued that the economic growth here is due to oil, rather than culture. Baghdad may also not be the most appealing of cities outside of the middle east due to the recent conflict. When you google San Francisco you have plenty of websites encouraging you to go, Baghdad is filled with facts and news stories.
Figure 3: UNESCO’s (2019) map of Cultural Cities shows some less well known choices.
It is clear that these ingredients make a city appealing, however we must be cautious when using the Creativity Index and Florida’s work in building economic success, as Malanga (2004) says how there is no correlation with economic success, stating that some of these vibrant creative cities underperform. He shows, using a National Commission on Entrepreneurship, that Las Vegas and Detroit, which did not rank highly with Florida, have had economic success, while New York, which ranked highly with Florida, did not.
Bibligraphy
British Council, 2010. Mapping the Creative Industries: A Toolkit, [online] Available at: https://creativeconomy.britishcouncil.org/media/uploads/files/English_mapping_the_creative_industries_a_toolkit_2-2.pdf [Accessed 20/11/2019].
Florida, R. 2002. ‘The Rise of the Creative Class’, The Washington Monthly
Florida, R. 2019. The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books.
Malanga, Steve. 2004. The curse of the creative class. City Journal. 36-45.
McRobbie, A. 2016. Making a Living in the New Culture Industries. Cambridge: Polity Press
UNESCO, 2007. Creative Cities Network, [online] Available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001560/156026e.pdf [Accessed 20/11/2019].
UNESCO 2018. Creative Cities Programme for sustainable development. Paris: UNESCO
UNESCO 2019. Search Creative Cities. [online] Available at: https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities/creative-cities-map [Accessed 23/11/2019].
Visit California, 2019. Spotlight San Francisco. [online] Available at: https://www.visitcalifornia.com/destination/spotlight-san-francisco [Accessed 23/11/2019].
