Brain Magnet: Research Triangle Park and the Rise of the Creative City, 1953-1965 (original) (raw)

A Production Utopia? RTP and the North Carolina Research Triangle

Southeastern Geographer, 2004

The effort to cast the central Piedmont region of North Carolina as the Research Triangle has been promoted since the mid-∞Ω∑≠s. It has relied, in particular, on the development of a π,≠≠≠-ac science and high-tech research complex-the Research Triangle Park (RTP)-as the region's geographic, economic, and symbolic core. This paper explores cultural and material constructions of place and region that have evolved with, and in some ways driven, this project. Depictions of the RTP site's historical emptiness, in this sense, beckoned for replacement with a more modern economic and cultural geography of science and technology. The purpose of the paper is thus to raise questions about the outcomes of this local and regional transformation by examining the interplay of the idea and reality of RTP as a ''production utopia'' built around notions of a prosperous modernity with a basis in the work of knowledge production.

The Creative Class Contestation: Uncovering debates around Richard Florida's Creative City theory

In this paper I explore Richard Florida's infamous Creative Class theory, which encourages growing cities to support the creative sector to spark economic development. However this theory has caused a lot of debate from academic scholars over the recent years, and my aim is to uncover the root of these debates to see why Florida's teachings are troubling to scholars like Peck, Malanga, and Markusen, amongst others.

Interview with Prof. Dr. Richard Florida: reflections on the creative economy

Cadernos de Campo: Revista Ciências Sociais, 2019

Richard Florida is one of the world’s leading urbanists. He is a researcher and professor, serving as University Professor and Director of Cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, a Distinguished Fellow at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, and a Visiting Fellow at Florida International University. He is a writer and journalist, having penned several global best sellers, including the award winning The Rise of the Creative Class and his most recent book, The New Urban Crisis published in April 2017. He serves as senior editor for The Atlantic, where he co-founded and serves as Editor-at-Large for CityLab. He is an entrepreneur, as founder of the Creative Class Group which works closely with companies and governments worldwide. A 2013 MIT study named him the world’s most influential thought leader. And TIME magazine recognized his Twitter feed as one of the 140 most influential in the world. He previously taught at Carnegie Mellon, Ohio State University, and George Mason University, and has been a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT and Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. For more information about Richard Florida and his work: http://www.creativeclass.com/

The renaissance of the city as a cluster of innovation

Cogent Business & Management, 2018

The first part of the twenty-first century has witnessed a rebirth of "the City" as an engine of innovation. This renaissance has been an organic response to technological and societal pressures, opportunities, and norms. This is a sharp reversal from the latter half of the twentieth century, which saw the decay and erosion of the City as a place of economic value creation. In spite of the best efforts of governments and city planners, suburbanization, first of residences, and then industry, led to a hollowing out than in some areas decimated urban life. What lessons can we learn from the emergent reversal of this trend? We explore in depth the examples of San Francisco, Austin (Texas), and London to discover lessons that may be broadly adopted.

CREATIVE CITIES: THE CULTURAL INDUSTRIES AND THE CREATIVE CLASS

Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2008

The aim of this paper is to critically examine the notion that the creative class may or may not play as a causal mechanism of urban regeneration. The paper begins with a review of Florida's argument focusing on the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings. The second section develops a critique of the relationship between the creative class and growth. This is followed by an attempt to clarify the relationship between the concepts of creativity, culture and the creative industries. Finally, the paper suggests that policy makers may achieve more successful regeneration outcomes if they attend to the cultural industries as an object that links production and consumption, manufacturing and service. Such a notion is more useful in interpreting and understanding the significant role of cultural production in contemporary cities, and what relation it has to growth.