The Assignment:
In his book, The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited, author Richard Florida makes the following comments:
Perhaps the greatest of all the New Economy myths is that “geography is
dead.” Thanks to advances in technology, the thinking goes, the global
playing field has been leveled; all of us are potential players, no matter who
we are or where we live. “When the world is flat,” as Thomas Friedman
famously put it, “you can innovate without having to emigrate.”
. . . My own research has convinced me that this “end of place” view is
unequivocally wrong. The most obvious challenge to the flat-world hypothesis is the explosive growth of cities and urban areas worldwide. (Florida 2012, 187)
Each of you in the class probably has more than a little familiarity with a place or places, and most of them are in or close to some urban area included in Florida’s Tables A.1 and A.2.
Prompt:
In this paper, I’m asking you to consider one of these urban areas that you are familiar with and decide whether Florida’s views, as expressed in his book, make sense in terms of your experience in that place and what you know about it or can find out.
And you have one main assignment related to this: you have been asked to be the speaker at a group of community leaders that invites people to review books relevant to decisions in the community you know well about how to improve their situation. The board of the club has asked you to send, in advance, a three-page summary of your remarks (see below for what needs to be covered) in advance that will help them understand the book and publicize your appearance.
Tell them what you think about it, being sure to include the following:
A brief statement of which Metro, as listed in Tables A.1 and A.2 in Florida’s list of cities, is the one you will be considering, how you are familiar with it (or not), and why you chose it (which may or may not be the same).
A brief description of what the statistics in Florida’s Appendix tables and any other information you find in the chapters might tell us about it, and what other relevant information you think would help your audience understand the urban area and your perspective.
The chapter from Florida that you think would be of most interest to the audience and the chapter that would be of the least interest to the audience, and, briefly, why.
Comments on how useful you think it would be for your community to take some of Florida’s advice; this advice is sometimes explicit and sometimes implicit.
Whether your analysis would support or contradict Florida’s view on the importance of place.
If you choose to include diagrams or tables, these do not count against your page limit. The same is true of a bibliography. You do not need to include any diagrams or tables but may do so if it aids your argument; those also escape the page limit.
You may consult with anyone you like while you sort through your ideas—friends, an astrologer, your long-lost cousin, etc. Please cease such consultation at the point where you begin to write the final version of the essay: written work should be yours alone!
Be sure to use quotation marks for direct quotes. If you bring in other sources than Florida or other material from this course you will need to give me full citations. These can be attached on a fourth page.
If you don’t think you have enough familiarity with one of these areas, pick one of them that seems especially intriguing to you, either because of its statistics or mention in Florida or some other reason. Parts 1 and 2 would not be much different. But for parts 3-5, take a different approach. Suppose you are a researcher who is interested in finding out more about why the metro area you chose has the rankings/characteristics in A1 and A2. Fashion questions to see whether that metro area fits or does not fit key findings of Florida (indicate the key chapters) and use what you can use on line or in Florida or elsewhere to tell me how well you think Florida’s analysis fits.
A few questions you might want to consider, though they are not directly part of the assignment:
How well do you think you know the area you’re looking at? Did Florida’s views change any of your views in that regard? What more would you like to know that could be relevant to your judgment? What do you know about the area’s prospects—either as they seem them or others see them.
If you don’t know the area as well as one you’ve grown up in—and even if you do—use your imagination to find out more about it.
What do you think might most interest/intrigue/upset the audience you envision addressing?
What have you learned in your economics courses thus far (you all at least have had an introductory course) that is relevant to this paper?
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