The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent

For the first time ever, the United States is truly in danger of losing its most crucial economic advantage -- its status as the world's greatest talent magnet -- argues best-selling author and economist Richard Florida. Where America was once the first destination for foreign students and the last stop for scientists, engineers, musicians, and entrepreneurs wishing to engage in the most robust and creative economy on the planet, it has now become only one place among many where cutting-edge innovation occurs.



Burgeoning global technology hotspots. The outsourcing of ingenuity. Rising intolerance. A faltering education system. Cities torn by inequality. Disconnected political leadership. According to Florida, they all point to the looming creativity crisis that is causing the decline of American economic might.



In the groundbreaking The Rise of the Creative Class, Florida introduced the United States to the rules of engagement in the creative age. Florida's 3 Ts of economic development -- Technology, Talent, and Tolerance -- took him around the world and back again, sparking an international debate over the causes and effects of long-term prosperity, development, and innovation.



The Flight of the Creative Class takes Florida's arguments to the next level, explaining how the same conditions that affect regional economic development, talent exchange, and the unleashing of human creativity play out on the world stage.



He sees cause for concern for the United States -- a country long accustomed to its comfortable position at the helm of the global economy -- and pockets of potential opening up from Sydney, Shanghai, and Amsterdam to Dublin, Bangalore, and Toronto.



But the United States still boasts one of the most diverse and creative citizenries in the world, and Florida points out that if it can discover solutions to address rising inequality, the global dissemination of talent, and the inherent tensions of the creative age, it will once again lead the pack. If only the rest of the world doesn't discover those solutions first ...
Richard Florida is the author of the best-selling The Rise of the Creative Class, which was awarded the Political Book Award for 2002 by the Washington Monthly and named by the Globe and Mail as one of the ten most influential books of that year. Florida is the Heinz Professor of Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon, and he has been a visiting professor at MIT and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He earned his bachelor's degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He lives in Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


Hardcover: 320 pages

Collins, April 2005