Here is a brief excerpt from a blog post by Richey Piiparinen. To check out all the resources at his website, learn more about his work, and sign up for email alerts, please click here.
Lead photo: The vibe in Cleveland, Courtesy of David Jurca
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“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Steve Jobs
Behind every sociological movement is a psychology. The ever-growing creative classification of America is no different. The following teases the psychology of the movement apart.
Why do this?
Because it is needed. The costs of blindly acquiescing to copycat community building are too great. These costs are not simply aesthetic, even economic, but are costs in the ability to distinguish creativity from repetition, and ultimately: truth from fiction.
Be Creative or Die
“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” Kierkegaard
You may think creative classification—or the commoditization of cities as products to be consumed by creative people with means in the name of economic growth—begins with happiness. It doesn’t. It begins with anxiety. Writes Richard Florida on page 12 in The Rise of the Creative Class:
“[T]he September 11, 2001, tragedy and subsequent terrorist threats have caused Americans, particularly those in the Creative Class, to ask sobering questions about what really matters in our lives. What we are witnessing in America and across the world extends far beyond high-tech industry or any so-called New Economy: It is the emergence of a new society and a new culture — indeed a whole new way of life. It is these shifts that will prove to be the most enduring developments of our time. And they thrust hard questions upon us. For now that forces have been unleashed that allow us to pursue our desires, the question for each of us becomes: What do we really want?”
By tapping the defining moment of a generation of young people—a moment, mind you, defined by terror, insecurity, and “what if”— Florida begins his path to individual and societal progress from a point common to thinkers since the beginning of time, i.e., what does it all mean?
In fact, if I were going to start a galvanizing societal theory, I’d begin there too, as uncertainty, if not fear, is a great motivator and catalyzer. Fearing failure, loneliness, meaninglessness, regret—it’s all fuel in the search for meaning, for life. And while this intrapersonal battle is stoked inside the individual, it becomes actualized in the world around us, not least in that relationship between a person and a place.
Hence, the creative class credo: if you want to “live” you need to go to where the “action” is, else succumb to missing out. Such existentially-fueled place-pedestaling is perhaps the driving tenant of creative class urbanism. Writes Frank Bures:
“I know now that this was Florida’s true genius: He took our anxiety about place and turned it into a product. He found a way to capitalize on our nagging sense that there is always somewhere out there more creative, more fun, more diverse, more gay, and just plain better than the one where we happen to be.”
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To read the complete article, please click here.
About Richey Piiparinen: “I have graduate degrees in clinical psychology from Roosevelt University in Chicago and in urban planning and design from Levine College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State. This hybrid formal training has influenced how I view the city: not just as a collection of forms, but as an aggregate of emotions. My writings are carved, then, by the philosophy that a city’s psychology should be attended to no less than its streets, bridges, and buildings.
“My writings on urbanism, culture, and social trends, as well as my research on economic development and demographic trends, have appeared in various outlets, including NPR’s Morning Edition, Salon, Huffington Post, New Geography, the Atlantic Cities, and numerous local periodicals, radio, and television broadcasts. I am also co-editor of the book Rust Belt Chic: A Cleveland Anthology.”