We have spent the semester discussing THE RISE OF THE CREATIVE CLASS REVISITED, and explored the viability of Richard Floridas theory both as academic analysis and as real-world economic and urban planning theory. Florida has been working with corporations and municipalities for over a decade implementing the ideas he has written and rewritten.
My position on this is that it works.
For your final project, you are going to create a project that asks a direct, yet complex question:
Does it work?
Is the Creative Class theory a viable one in delivering economic prosperity and social justice? Are there problems in the theory that need to be further corrected? Or is the theory flawed as a vehicle to deliver jobs and healthy neighborhoods and in delivering social justice, however it is defined?
To answer this question, you are going to seek out a case study. That is, you are going to look for an individual who you believe works in a field that Florida would classify as being a part of the Creative Class, through their career or job. This could be someone who, for example runs a non-profit, is a designer, is a teacher someone who is engaged in work that seems to fit the theory.
Once identified, you will conduct an interview with that person. You will then take that interview and conduct a research paper, using the responses from the interview, Floridas book, and other independent research you will conduct to essentially test the answers through the research. The goal: is the work your interviewee doing consistent with the kind of work Florida describes in the book and does that work help to show that the Creative Class is workable or not?