Thursday, October 07, 2004
Can Creative People Rule the World?
| Thanks to Nancy at Perseus for the reader's copy of Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class
I'm a student and fan of Florida's work. His main thesis is that communities that attract creative people (artists, musicians, software programmers, graphic designers, etc) will thrive in the next few decades over more conservative towns that try too hard to keep manufacturing and service jobs. I think there will be a few dozen cities and towns that will become the new creative centers, the way Seattle, Austin, and San Francisco have been during the tech boom. These cities may be places like Lawrence, KS, Moscow, ID, Madison, WI, or Iowa City, IA. And they'll all be ready for an independent bookstore to establish themselves as a cultural hub for the community. The question is, will we have booksellers trained and ready to open up stores in these towns? Or are we going to let the chains stake claim? |
