Civic creativity

Richard Florida looks pensive

This week I attended two very different on-campus talks. The first featured Richard Florida, the celebrity US academic who has recently been hired by the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. The event was co-sponsored by the town of Sackville and Mount Allison's Wilfred B. Jonah Lecture Series.

Apparently he is a big deal, so I decided to go hear him speak. I realized during his talk that I had read one of his articles in an economic geography class - specifically about his "Gay Index" and "Bohemian Index". Allow me to explain.

Florida is not a conventional professor; he straddles the gap between the isolated 'ivory tower' and mainstream culture. In same the vein as "Freakonomics", Florida uses clear language to explain broader economic concepts.

His argument is based on the role of the "creative class". The choice of the word "class" is a bit strange, however, since Florida's main point is that every human being has the capacity for creativity. Harnessing and releasing this creativity is the key to both happiness and economic development.

Creativity creates value, which creates wealth. This is why we see a correlation between prosperity and the presence of a creative, tolerant, open culture in a given community. Thus the "Bohemian" and "Gay" Indices - the more gay or artsy people in a municipality, the more wealthy and developed it will be.

I enjoyed the overall message of the talk: arts and culture are not peripheral to development, but are at the core of human expression and development. Some of his examples and assumptions betrayed him as a bit elitist, however. (In fact, this has been the main critique of his work.) Some of his thinking only applies to middle-class America - those "yuppies" who value design and aesthetics as the highest form of expression. Meanwhile, the working class and entire societies in the developed world do not necessarily have access to his particular vision of a creativity-based society.

Perhaps my critique comes merely from his persona. Dressed in a hoodie, a blazer and jeans he casually delivered his talk without notes, dropping names like Hillary, Oprah and Colbert as if they were old-time friends. At the reception following the talk, a black limousine was waiting for Florida outside; this is a strange luxury in Sackville. (While the car waited, I stuffed some havarti and pita from the snack trays into a few tupperware I had gone home to collect.)

I found an entertaining visual version of his talk online (click to enlarge):


The second talk I attended featured Mount Allison professor Andrew Nurse. The co-ordinator of the Canadian Studies academic programme at Mount Allison, Nurse gave a talk entitled "Canadian Liberalism and the Dynamics of Civic Nationalism" as a part of the annual George Stanley lecture series. (Remember George? He designed the Canadian flag.)

Nurse used citations from Michael Ignatieff's and Pierre Trudeau's writings to argue that civic nationalism is a flawed ideology. Civic nationalism, according to these thinkers, is the rational alternative to the heated, potentially violent loyalties of ethnic nationalism. We are so immersed in the logic of civic nationalism that we fail to acknowledge how it too can tend toward irrationality and violence. This liberal ideology cannot be a superior method of political organization; it is merely a matter of cultural preference.

The talk was thought-provoking; Nurse speculated on new ideas, while making his logic accessible to those who were not fully familiar with the terms and concepts of Canadian Studies. He applied his thinking to Canadian pop culture, explaining how various Canadian artists had already negotiated our 'hegemonic liberalism'.

The best part of the evening was its community spirit. Before and after the talk two professors sang the praises of Dr. Nurse, who has been an active member of the Mount Allison community and a strong advocate for Canadian Studies programmes across the country. While being introduced, he looked humbly at the floor as if to downplay his long list of contributions to the school and his discipline. The question period following the talk included thoughtful comments from students and professors who I have met during my five years here, and I left feeling I had participated in something uplifting and stimulating.

So, in one week I saw a high-profile, stylish, Hillary hob-nobbing academic in Convocation Hall, and a humble, home-grown, provocative professor who sits at the centre of the Mount Allison community.

Andrew Nurse makes lunch for his daughter

On another note, it is snowing outside, and I am hoping, somewhat in vain, for a snow day.