The Rise of the Creative Class

First of all…wow….It seems as though I have been going in so many directions the past few months. But I wouldn’t be entirely truthful if I said that my activity has been for "work", or "business".

I made a conscience attempt early in my 20s to engage myself in activities that were completely meaningful to me. Particularly over the past 10 years, I’d like to think that my family (my wife, children, mother, mother-in-law, brother, etc…) have been witness to a life led with passion, feeling, and purpose.

This past week I’ve been engaging my students in the use of Twitter. As of today over 55 of my current students are on Twitter. What I have seen with my students, just in this week, is that because of this opportunity, they now have a higher level of energy for thinking, observation, expression, and a desire to establish something special. They’ve been given a simple opportunity to create.

So this brings me to the point of community development. And now you say, "huh?" "What?"
I was turned on to a groundbreaking perspective in community and social development in early 2004: "The Rise of the Creative Class."

Over the past 15 years I have had a keen interest in community development. A large part of my academic training, and what I do now as Assistant Professor of Sociology at OCTC, is focus attention on society, culture, and human behavior.

So the Creative Class argument set forth by Richard Florida completely resonated with me. The premise of his work is this: people want to be freed or empowered to create. Not only is that perhaps an innate human desire, oddly enough, it is tied to community and social development in the 21st century. Give people the opportunity, create the environment for wonderful things, and let people go. Give them the tools needed to be and do something extraordinary. In turn, his research points to high rates of economic growth, population stability and growth, and citizens reporting very high levels of quality of life: both personally and in terms of how they view their community.

So let me give you something to chew on, and perhaps you can provide a comment or two: what types of opportunities and access should our community have to allow people to be creative? Think about the possibilities all across the spectrum: religion, government, education, the arts, in the workplace. An alternative question to consider: is our community too stagnant to the point of being unwilling to accept change? Do our institutions have an inviting environment which encourages participation, engagement, and creativity?


Chad Gesser is Assistant Professor Sociology at Owensboro Community and Technical College chad.gesser@kctcs.edu