McGranahan D. and Wojan T. (2007) Recasting the creative class to examine growth processes in rural and urban counties, Regional Studies 41, 1-20. Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class (2002) makes a compelling argument that regional development now depends on novel combinations of knowledge and ideas, that certain occupations specialize in this task, that people in these occupations are drawn to areas providing a high quality of life, and thus the essential development strategy is to create an environment that attracts and retains these workers. The present analysis of recent rural development in rural US counties, which focuses on natural amenities as quality of life indicators, supports the creative class thesis. A repetition for urban counties also shows a strong relationship between creative class presence and growth, although natural amenities play a smaller role. However, the results depend on a recast creative class measure, which excludes from the original Florida measure many occupations with low creativity requirements and those involved primarily in economic reproduction. The measure conforms more closely to the concept of creative class and proves to be more highly associated with regional development than the original Florida measure. McGranahan D. et Wojan T. (2007) Reformuler la classe creatrice pour examiner les processus de croissance dans les comtes ruraux et urbains, Regional Studies 41, 1-20. Dans son livre Rise of the Creative Class (L'Essor de la classe creatrice) (2002), Richard Florida affirme de facon convaincante que, de nos jours, l'amenagement du territoire depend des combinaisons originales de la connaissance et des idees, que certaines categories socioprofessionnelles se specialisent dans cette tache, que ceux qui travaillent dans de telles categories sont pousses vers des professions qui offrent une qualite de la vie elevee, et donc la strategie cle est de creer un milieu qui attire et retient ces travailleurs. L'analyse du developpement rural recent dans les comtes ruraux aux E-U qui porte sur l'equipement naturel comme indicateur de la qualite de la vie, confirme la these qui prone la classe creatrice. Repeter l'analyse pour les comtes urbains montre aussi une correlation etroite entre la presence de la classe creatrice et la croissance, alors que l'equipement naturel joue un moindre role. Cependant, les resultats dependent d'une mesure de la classe creatrice reformulee qui exclut de la mesure originale de Florida beaucoup des professions dont les criteres de creativite sont peu importants et dont les employes travaillent principalement dans la production economique. La mesure se conforme plus etroitement a la notion de la classe creatrice et s'avere en correlation plus etroite avec l'amenagement du territoire que ne le fait la mesure originale de Florida. Equipement Validite du concept Professions Amenagement du territoire McGranahan D. und Wojan T. (2007) Neues Modell der kreativen Klasse zur Untersuchung von Wachstumsprozessen in landlichen und stadtischen Bezirken, Reg...

Recent work challenges the notion that attracting creative workers to a place is sufficient for generating local economic growth. In this article, we examine the problem of sustaining robust growth in the periphery of the USA, demonstrating the contingent nature of talent as an engine for economic growth. We test the hypothesis that rural growth in the knowledge economy is dependent on the ability to utilize new knowledge, perhaps generated elsewhere, in addressing local economic challenges. Tests confirm that the interaction of entrepreneurial context with the share of the workforce employed in the creative class is strongly associated with growth in the number of new establishments and employment, particularly in those rural counties endowed with attractive outdoor amenities.

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ObjectiveCreative class theory explains the positive relationship between the arts and commercial innovation as the mutual attraction of artists and other creative workers by an unobserved creative milieu. This study explores alternative theories for rural settings, by analyzing establishment-level survey data combined with data on the local arts scene. The study identifies the local contextual factors associated with a strong design orientation, and estimates the impact that a strong design orientation has on the local economy.MethodData on innovation and design come from a nationally representative sample of establishments in tradable industries. Latent class analysis allows identifying unobserved subpopulations comprised of establishments with different design and innovation orientations. Logistic regression allows estimating the association between an establishment’s design orientation and local contextual factors. A quantile instrumental variable regression allows assessing the robustness of the logistic regression results with respect to endogeneity. An estimate of design orientation at the local level derived from the survey is used to examine variation in economic performance during the period of recovery from the Great Recession (2010–2014).ResultsThree distinct innovation (substantive, nominal, and non-innovators) and design orientations (design-integrated, “design last finish,” and no systematic approach to design) are identified. Innovation- and design-intensive establishments were identified in both rural and urban areas. Rural design-integrated establishments tended to locate in counties with more highly educated workforces and containing at least one performing arts organization. A quantile instrumental variable regression confirmed that the logistic regression result is robust to endogeneity concerns. Finally, rural areas characterized by design-integrated establishments experienced faster growth in wages relative to rural areas characterized by establishments using no systematic approach to design.