Knowledge as power From the Enlightenment, the value of scrutinizing the ways we understand the world in order to enhance our understandings of (and interventions into) the world. From the liberal arts ideal, the necessity of appreciating how different bodies of knowledge approach the same ideas and phenomena in distinct ways. Each discipline emphasizes some things, while neglecting and failing to provide a vocabulary for other things. From Michel Foucault, the understanding that systems of power are always accompanied by systems of knowledge which model the world and frame the terms of human subjectivity and political legitimacy. When embodied in systems of power, knowledge produces very material and coercive effects.

Ontology The specification of concepts, relationships, and other distinctions that are relevant for constituting and modeling a body of knowledge. Ontology explains what we know from any one perspective. Some related terms Epistemology The study of knowledge: what it is; how it might be assessed; what the grounds/assumptions for an idea might be; what claims to truth might be made; whether true knowledge can be achieved. Epistemology explains how we know what we know from any one perspective. Methodology The principles, practices, and procedures used to collect and analyze information. Methodology explains how we enact in the empirical world what we know from any one perspective (cf. “methodological territorialism”).

Who’s Your City? Macro theory: Florida’s thesis on capitalist innovation, which transforms industries, occupations and organizations into creative sectors of dynamic human talent and urban agglomerations (“mega-regions”). But first… Micro theory: Florida’s micro-economic theory of human behavior, which ontologically precedes and socially produces the larger structures of society.

Who’s Your City? Human subjectivity: People seek utilities that are private, individual, unconditioned, and arbitrary but which can be rationally prioritized, chosen, and pursued. The basis for social interaction: In pursuit of their utilities, people exchange physical and social resources with one another—goods, services, labor, affections, commitments, etc. An expressive utilitarianism. Ontologically privileged social form: The market—a social complex that people, groups, and organizations constitute in their individual roles as buyers and sellers. Characteristically, market actors do not perceive the levels and structures of markets beyond their “selfish” exchanges, and doing so (by favoring specific groups, altruism for the whole, etc.) can reduce market efficiency.

Who’s Your City? Ontological status of ‘society’: epiphenomenal and external. As a specifically collective, structural force (e.g., regulating commerce and mobility ‘for the greater good’), nation-states enforce exchange law but also potentially reduce market efficiency. Consequences for the global: market actors scan, transact, and circulate across geography in order to rationally pursue their utilities, restrained only by specific frictions of time and space. The world may not be “flat,” but nor do markets (for Florida, especially markets of lifestyle and common values) necessarily restrict themselves to municipal or national borders.