Centrality and Creativity: Does Richard Florida's Creative Class Offer New Insights into Urban Hierarchy?

Abstract

To provide new insights into urban hierarchy, this article brings together one of economic geography's oldest and most well-established notions with one of its newest and most disputed notions: Christäller's centrality and Florida's creative class. Using a novel original database, the article compares the distribution of the general population and the creative class across 444 city regions in 8 European countries. It finds that the two groups are both distributed according to the rank-size rule, but exhibit different distinct phases with different slopes. The article argues that the two distributions are different because market thresholds for creative services and jobs are lower than thresholds for less specialized services and jobs. The article hence concludes that centrality exerts a strong influence upon urban hierarchies of creativity and that the study of creative urban city hierarchies yields new insights into the problem of centrality. Copyright (c) 2009 Clark University.

Factors Explaining the Spatial Agglomeration of the Creative Class: Empirical Evidence for German Artists

“…One may even say that (artists or bohemians) pioneer the preferences of the whole (however being defined) creative class (Lorenzen & Andersen, 2009). …”

“…Their explanation is that members of the creative class are attracted to central places because of specialized consumer preferences (e.g. restaurants, cafés, entertainment, museums) and specialized job preferences (employees who work in high-technology industries) (Lorenzen & Andersen, 2009). According to Florida (2002a), this especially applies to artists, who will therefore be overrepresented in urban areas.…”

A kreatív gazdaság földrajzi jellemzői Magyarországon

“…A nemzetközi szakirodalomban több alkalommal bizonyították, hogy a kreatív tevékenységek elsősorban a nagy népességszámú városokhoz kötődnek, s az ilyen típusú vállalkozások telephelyválasztása erősen követi a településhierarchiát (Lorenzen, Andersen 2009). A vizsgálatok elvégzésére Magyarország településeit öt csoportba soroltuk (Budapest, 100 ezer főnél népe-sebb városok, 50-100 ezer fő közötti városok, 20-50 ezer fő közötti városok és 20 ezer főnél kisebb települések), s ezen csoportok szerint vizsgáltuk a kreatív gazdaságban foglalkoztatottak arányának alakulását a három időpontban (2. ábra).…”

The Equilibrium Allocation of Creative Capital to R&D in a Dynamic Creative Region

“…Lorenzen and Andersen [7] concentrate on 444 city regions in eight European countries and analyze the interplay between the older concept of "centrality" and the newer concept of the "creative class". Their analysis demonstrates that the notion of centrality exerts a strong influence on what they call "urban hierarchies of creativity".…”

“…Their analysis demonstrates that the notion of centrality exerts a strong influence on what they call "urban hierarchies of creativity". In turn, "the study of creative urban city hierarchies yields new insights into the problem of centrality" ( [7], p. 363). The statistical analysis conducted by Andersen et al [8] shows that Florida's creative class thesis is supported for larger Nordic cities but not as well for smaller Nordic cities.…”