THE CREATIVE FIELD OF CITIES (in cognitive-cultural capitalism) Allen J. Scott, University of California, Los Angeles

STRUCTURES OF PRODUCTION AND URBAN FORMS 1. The factory system: The classical manufacturing town. 2. Fordist mass production: The great industrial metropolis. 3. Post-fordism, new economy, cognitive capitalism, cognitive-cultural economy: The “creative” city.

THE COGNITIVE-CULTURAL ECONOMY NEW DIVISION OF LABOR [Levy and Murnane (2004)] Deroutinization of labor processes. 1. Digital technologies 2. High levels of scientific/technical labor 3. Human intermediation of services 4. Symbolic outputs 5. Aestheticization of commodities 6. (Ernst) Engel’s law

Specific forms of cognitive- cultural production and work: Scientific and technological research Neoliberal technomanagement Innovation-oriented production (plus integration of conception and execution) Sorting and diffusion of information Personal services Commodification of experiences Etc., etc.

BUT ALSO: Deroutinized low-wage work: Small-batch assembly Flexible machine operation (e.g. sewing machine, vehicle, word processing) Security and maintenance Hotel and restaurant trades Janitorial work Childcare Widening divide

Some attempts to map out social stratification in the new economy Bell: Post-industrial society Gouldner: The new class Reich: Symbolic workers in the information economy Sklair: Transnational capitalist class Castells: Network society Florida: The creative class

Some theorizations of the cognitive-cultural order Managerial discourse: flexibility, fast capitalism, human capital, empathy, creativity, adaptability, etc. Urban policy discourse: consumer city (Glaeser), entertainment machine (Clark), creative city (Florida, Landry).

TOWARD -- AND BEYOND – THE CREATIVE CITY

Driving forces of urban growth in the era of the cognitive- cultural economy 1.Networks of specialized but complementary producers 2.Local labor markets: skills, socialization 3.The creative field: learning and innovation, i.e. creativity is always mobilized in concrete ways (textiles industry, car industry, film industry) 4.Regional institutions and social infrastructures of the creative economy [from protection of intellectual property rights (e.g. aoc) to social networking]

Regional convergence is a locational strategy by means of which producers and workers transform latent benefits into concrete competitive advantages Increasing returns to scale Agglomeration economies Monopoly powers of place (product differentiation and branding; Chamberlinian competition)

A new balance between work, life, and leisure in the city 1.Interpenetration of upgraded production space and gentrified social space 2.Proliferation of cultural/entertainment facilities (Clark: “Entertainment machine”) 3.City of the spectacle 4.Iconic architecture and recycling of the built environment: Bilbao Guggenheim, Westergasfabriek, Petronas Towers, London Docklands.

The Florida formula for achieving the creative city Attract the creative class by: Investing in amenities Encouraging tolerance, openness and diversity Warm winters are allegedly an added attraction

However, we must also take the following points into consideration: Highly qualified workers seek relevant forms of work (mobile but not footloose) The complex production machinery of the city The spiral of cumulative of causation in city growth

The diachronic dimension: Silicon Valley s: Fruit growing 2. Initial planting of high-technology seed. 3. Disintegration, spin off. 4. In-migration of semiconductor engineers (NOT undifferentiated creative class) 5. Growth of market and defense spending 6. Cumulative causation

The synchronic dimension: Hollywood

… the furniture industry

… the recorded music industry

REPRISE: THE POLICY PROBLEM 1.Bottom up 2.Harvest external economies (networks, labor markets, innovation) 3.Institution-building in the interests of regional coordination: internalizing externalities. 4.Sustain overall milieu, i.e. creative field.

The Global Dimension

The dark side of the dialectic: Sweatshops Underclass Immigrant, often undocumented, labor Social segmentation Widening divide

The decline of community The withdrawal of public services The retreat of the public sphere

Beyond the creative city and the creative class: tasks ahead From the neoliberal city to the social democratic city: i.e. Prosperity and growth, PLUS citizenship, solidarity, sociability, political community From the “creative city” of possessive individualism, sharp inequalities, and consumer capitalism toward the convivial city