Got this link to a review of Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class: and how it’s Transforming Work, Leisure and Everyday Life from the Demos Greenhouse.
“The Creative Class is not just distinguished by its members’ professions, but by their lifestyles. Florida paints a picture of a group of people whose creativity permeates every aspect of their lives, who thrive on diversity and change, who collect experiences rather than possessions, and for whom the ability to express individuality and find an outlet for creativity is more important than any material gain.”
I’m sure there’s some reality to the trends tracked by books like this one but I’m also sure that there’s a decent book to be written about the ‘fantasy social classes’ industry itself. There seems to be a quite profound human need to imagine a better, brighter, more engaged – generally more funky &ndash: class of people. And then, of course, to imagine oneself a member of it.
(See also: The Soul of the New Consumer: Authenticity – What We Buy and Why in the New Economy, in which a new generation of hyper-engaged consumers seeks truth in Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There, in which socially liberal yuppies change the world through Frappuccino and Fair Trade chocolate).