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25-650: Richard L. Florida (born 1957) is an American urban studies theorist focusing on social and economic theory. He is a professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a Distinguished Fellow at NYU's School of Professional Studies . Florida taught at Carnegie Mellon University 's Heinz College in Pittsburgh from 1987 to 2005, before moving to George Mason University 's School of Public Policy, where he taught for two years. He

50-431: A group he describes as "high bohemians ", exhibit a higher level of economic development. Florida refers to these groups collectively as the "creative class." He posits that the creative class fosters an open, dynamic, personal, and professional urban environment. This environment, in turn, attracts more creative people, as well as businesses and capital. He suggests that attracting and retaining high-quality talent versus

75-471: A large role in determining how cities will change in the future. Such areas change continuously as part of larger processes and create new histories that researchers study on both large-scale and individual levels. Overall, three different themes have influenced how researchers have and will continue to study urban areas: Scholars have also researched how cities outside of the United Kingdom and

100-520: A more creative, as well as skilled, workforce, Florida asserted that the contemporary relevance of his research is easy to see. One author characterizes him as an influence on radical centrist political thought. Florida's ideas have been criticized from a variety of political perspectives and by both academics and journalists. His theories have been criticized as being elitist, and his conclusions have been questioned. Researchers have also criticized Florida's work for its methodology. Terry Nichols Clark of

125-482: A singular focus on projects such as sports stadiums, iconic buildings, and shopping centers, would be a better primary use of a city's regeneration of resources for long-term prosperity. He has devised his own ranking systems that rate cities by a "Bohemian index," a "Gay index," a "diversity index", and similar criteria. In 2004, following the rise of Google , the gurus of Web 2.0 , and the call from business leaders (often seen in publications such as Business 2.0 ) for

150-622: A sociological perspective. Louis Wirth and Roberts Ezra Park also became the first sociologists to publish about the immigrant neighbourhoods in America with suggestions on their future design. Roberts Ezra Park was a student of George Zimmel in Chicago. Other famous scholars that studied segregation, American Ghettos, and impoverished neighbourhoods include Du Bois (1903), Haynes (1913), Johnson (1943), Horace Cayton (1944), Kenneth Clark (1965), William Julius Wilson (1987). This field

175-781: A specific city. Thomas Frank Thomas Carr Frank (born March 21, 1965) is an American political analyst, historian, and journalist. He co-founded and edited The Baffler magazine. Frank is the author of the books What's the Matter with Kansas? (2004) and Listen, Liberal (2016), among others. From 2008 to 2010 he wrote "The Tilting Yard", a column in The Wall Street Journal . A historian of culture and ideas, Frank analyzes trends in American electoral politics and propaganda , advertising, popular culture, mainstream journalism, and economics. His topics include

200-531: Is transdisciplinary because it uses theories from a variety of academic fields and places them within an urban context. A wide variety of academic fields refers to the urban environment as a location studied, such as Environmental Studies , Economics , Geography , Public Health , and Sociology . However, scholars in this field research how specific elements contribute to how the city operates, such as how housing and transportation will change. In addition, researchers also study how residents interact within

225-409: Is married to Rana Florida . Urban studies The study of cities has changed dramatically from the 1800s over time, with new frames of analysis being applied to the development of urban areas. The first college programs were created to observe how cities were developed based on anthropological research of ghetto communities. In the mid-1900s, urban study programs expanded beyond just looking at

250-418: The 2016 United States presidential election . In 2018, he called Trump "the worst politician ever", but maintained that Trump could be reelected in the 2020 presidential election . Frank further observes that "quasi-fascist movements" are springing up around the world. Frank's research into U.S. populism was published as the book The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism (2020). In it, he examines

275-629: The Eugene Debs Award for his work in the field of social justice. From December 2010 to February 2014, Frank wrote the monthly "Easy Chair" column for Harper's Magazine . Frank identifies as a left-wing populist and supported Bernie Sanders 's 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. In Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? (2016), Frank was one of the few analysts who foresaw that Donald Trump could win

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300-563: The United States have developed, but only to a limited degree. Urban history previously focused mostly on how European and American cities developed over time, instead of focusing on how non-European cities developed. Additional geographic areas researched in this field include South Africa , Australia , Latin America , and India . This is changing as more research is performed in developing economies, leading to more contextual urban and infrastructural development in various parts of

325-439: The University of Chicago used Florida's own data to question the correlation between the presence of significant numbers of gay men in a city and the presence of high-technology knowledge industries. Harvard economist Edward Glaeser analyzed Florida's data and concluded that educational levels, rather than the presence of bohemians or gay people, is correlated with metropolitan economic development. Other critics have said that

350-547: The University of Kansas in his freshman year. Frank received a Master of Arts degree in history in 1990 and a doctorate in history in 1994 from the University of Chicago . His doctoral thesis on advertising in the 1960s, The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism , was later published by the University of Chicago Press. Frank was a College Republican , attending campus meetings at

375-571: The University of Kansas, but became highly critical of conservatism. He summarized the thesis of his 2008 book The Wrecking Crew (book) as "[b]ad government is the natural product of rule by those who believe government is bad." Frank's other writings include essays for Harper's Magazine , Le Monde diplomatique , Bookforum , and the Financial Times . His book What's the Matter with Kansas? (2004) earned him nationwide and international recognition. In October 2005, Frank received

400-502: The book treats Florida's creative class theory in an introductory and neutral tone, but in a theoretical "postscript" chapter, the author criticizes what he describes as Florida's tendency to "whitewash" the negative externalities associated with creative city development. Thomas Frank criticizes Florida's "creative class" formulation as one of "several flattering ways of describing the professional cohort," this particular one being "the most obsequious designation of them all." Frank places

425-627: The city and their respective systems as a whole. Israel Zangwill wrote one of the first books on the Ghettos of Europe and how they impacted the Jewish children that were descendants of the original residents, Children of the Ghetto (1892), he also wrote two other books about the European Ghettos. Louis Wirth was the next scholar to write about the Ghettos, he wrote about them from

450-523: The city, such as how race and gender differences lead to social inequalities , or concentrated disadvantage in urban areas. Urban studies is a major field of study used by paraprofessional practitioners of urban planning . Researchers struggle how to define basic terms precisely, such as how a city is defined, due to how the roles of cities change. Researchers must be careful in how they describe urban areas, as their work can be manipulated as positive elements for city boosters wanting to promote

475-535: The conditions it describes may no longer exist, and that his theories may be better suited to politics, rather than economics. Florida has gone on to directly reply to a number of these objections. Some scholars have voiced concern over Florida's influence on urban planners throughout the United States. A 2010 book, Weird City , examines Florida's influence on planning policy in Austin, Texas. The main body of

500-753: The continuous-improvement systems implemented by such automakers as Toyota. Florida is best known for his concept of the creative class and its implications for urban regeneration . This idea was expressed in Florida's best-selling books The Rise of the Creative Class (2002), Cities and the Creative Class , and The Flight of the Creative Class , and later published a book focusing on the issues surrounding urban renewal and talent migration, titled Who's Your City? Florida's theory asserts that metropolitan regions with high concentration of technology workers, artists, musicians, lesbians and gay men, and

525-611: The creative class within a broader critique of the Democratic Party : "Let us be clear about the political views Florida was expounding here. The problem with, say, George W. Bush's administration was not that it favored the rich; it was that it favored the wrong rich—the 'old-economy' rich.... Florida wept for unfairly ignored industries, but he expressed little sympathy for the working people whose issues were now ignored by both parties." Florida lives in Toronto and Miami and

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550-421: The current and historical impacts of city design and began studying how those designs impacted the future interactions of people and how to improve city development through architecture, open spaces, the interactions of people, and different types of capital that forms a community. Urban history plays an important role in this field of study because it reveals how cities have developed previously. History plays

575-532: The rhetoric and impact of culture wars in American political life and the relationship between politics , economics , and culture in the United States. Frank was born in Kansas City, Missouri , and grew up in Mission Hills, Kansas . He graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School , and in 1988 from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history after transferring from

600-562: The world. The racial segregation of urban residents in the United States has played an important role in developing this field. One program founded to research African-American urban residents, the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies , was founded in 1959 to study residential segregation and to support affected communities. More recently, studies related to race and urban life started to focus on ethnographic methods to study how individuals lived in relation to

625-542: Was named a Senior Editor at The Atlantic in March 2011 after serving as a correspondent for TheAtlantic.com for a year. Florida was born in Newark, New Jersey . He graduated from Rutgers College in 1979 with a B.A. in political science . He then attended Columbia University , where he studied urban planning ( M.Phil. in 1984 and Ph.D. in 1986). Florida's early work focused on innovation by manufacturers, including

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