Who’s Your City? By Richard Florida

I have move my blog to www.spotalks.com

This article is published in the viewspaper and the link is http://theviewspaper.net/who%e2%80%99s-your-city-by-richard-florida/#more-6198
In 2008, a book “Who’s your city? ISBN 0465003524” was written by Richard Florida, an American urban theorist to challenge the idea of globalization. If someone had read the nonfiction book “The world’s flat” by The New York Times columnist, Thomas L. Friedman and got convinced by his radical ideas on the flattening of the world, then you should definitely read this book to consider the ambivalence of the globalization. To understand the concept of this book, we should first understand the economics of globalization and its ramifications. Globalization has equipped far flung regions from once impoverished like China and India to connect with the west and also eventually challenge them in the creative economy.

In the west, the word “Bangalored” is much hyped for the information technological innovations it provides to them. China is now considered to be the manufacturing hub of the world. Likewise several different places once impoverished are now plugging and playing with the American and European economics. So, the common deduction based on these developments is that the world is getting flatter than before. Moreover, these developments have also led to the sudden spurt of mega cities like Shanghai, Bangalore, Dubai, etc. But Richard Florida in his book has denied the flatness by facts and figures to conclude that the world is rather spiky.

He says where you live in this globalized world actually matters more than before. In his book, he puts forth cogent arguments on how only the spiky regions from USA, UK, Europe, Singapore, China, India, etc. contribute substantially to the economic development of the world. For example, people who stay in Bangalore have more opportunities to create and innovate than anywhere in India in IT sector. Mega regions such as New York, London, Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai and very recently Mumbai compete among themselves for the pie in finance sector. The reforms done in any one of these cities will adversely affect the competition in other cities. The same principles also apply to other sectors like manufacturing, services, and agriculture.

Location is not only important in economic benefits in the creative economy but also for the other lifestyle purpose. Large population of single people in a place naturally attracts other single people from different regions to flock to that place. For example, there is usually a proliferation of night clubs and pubs where there is large number of single people.

Richard Florida’s insights on the location are interestingly important and make sense in Indian context when we face lack of political will to proactively fulfill the infrastructure in our megacities. His book explores important decisions every human being makes in his/her life like where to live, how to live, whom to live with. But most people tend to focus less on the location of their living. He explains where to live is the most important decision of the life since everything else comes on the way. It is also true in Indian context, like for example if you decide to succeed in the world of finance then you should probably choose to go to Mumbai to gauge the competition and hone your skills for the job. But if you do not go to Mumbai and clamor for the success then it is a distant dream. So, Location is the most important thing in this information rich world.

Richard Florida might have convinced people on the economic opportunities that each city provides but he didn’t ponder much on the economic impact of this congregation. He gave very little focus on the policies of why this urban area particularly attracts certain people. Some things will always be dependent on physical proximity, but it would seem that industries which can take advantage of the new electronic mobility will be growth industries. As for the people who love the peace and tranquility of the countryside or village Richard Florida’s “Who’s your City” is exuberantly urban minded. Nevertheless, this book is worth a read for people who love urban life and want to know which city will better qualify for their requirements.

The Flat world vs. the Spiky World

I have move my blog to www.spotalks.com

I believe most of you should have read “The world is flat” book by radical thinker of 21st century Thomas L. Friedman. He is also a famous columnist of The Newyork Times and several times winner of Pulitzer Prize. He says in his revolutionizing book about globalization that the world is flat; it means more and more people around the world started to plug and play in the world economy. I was constantly looking for different perspective to Friedman because you couldn’t form an opinion on single perspective though Friedman is undeniably a genius. I came across a book called “The shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein, a famous Canadian journalist who opposes globalization. She was succinctly arguing in her book that free market principles devised and advocated by Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman erodes the freedom of ordinary people.
In the novel, she cited examples from South American dictatorship to democratic Bolivia how they implemented free markets with the help of CIA or some American foundation in a forced manner. These countries deliberately wiped the indigenous industries or people to allow multinational corporate to exploit the cheap resources. She was vehemently arguing that globalization is bad and can only benefit some elite people, others will be left out. My insatiable desire to understand why only certain cities or countries can innovate was not over. One day I was browsing through “Economist.com” and found an article about the book on “Imaging India” by Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys. As many might have anticipated, his book was all praise about how Bangalore was able to adapt to globalization and become a centre of innovation in IT services. I was very curious to read the comments posted by readers on how they react to his book and found an interesting comment asking others to read a book called “Who’s your city?” by Richard Florida.
As a poor jobless guy like me will always fall into the trap of others who say that this or that book is very good. So I went to library and borrowed this book to read, know what the hell is he talking about? Believe me this book is worth a read and it gave me a different perspective and trigger me to think also. He is not against globalization like Naomi Klein but he says “The world is spiky” rather flat. As a reader, I kept on reading to understand his intuition and logic behind saying that. He says only so called mega regions or cities around the globe produces almost entire goods and services and they are the major contributors for trade. He was able to prove this statement by facts and figures from credible agencies like IMF, World Bank, etc. I said to myself alright man; I may try to convince myself that the world is not flat but spiky.
But things usually don’t stop there, we need to introspect whether globalization is really good or bad or the world is flat or spiky. In my case, I hail from a small town which was/is (Don’t know I haven’t analyzed this yet) not well connected to the global economy. There are so indifferences or inequities among the guys or gals brought up in cities and my place which I can clearly observe. I gone to Chennai to pursue my junior college and understood that the world is competitive than what I thought previously so I started working my ass off. I got a decent score in A levels and land up in NTU, Singapore. I come here and find that the world is extremely spiky so I need to fundamentally dismantle myself or double hard work. So, I am doing my level best to keep my head above the water. For a moment, leave me aside and lets go to another interesting perspective who’s my cousin born and brought up in a village worse than my place actually (at least in education).
I took him to city and showed him the different world out there where there are so much of opportunities to grab. He made a sensible point “who will support me in city?” Unless you hail from middle class or upper middle class you have all the money to spend on your training and move up the ladder. I sincerely believe that he has a point. If we really analyze who are those people who plugged and played in Friedman’s the flat world? They are from mega regions or cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. It’s the safest assumption to say that all our elite class, entrepreneurs and business people are from those mega regions.
I wanted to know how the fastest growing country “china” looks like. So I asked my Chinese friend “Is china a flat country or spiky regions?” My friend admitted that china is also a spiky regional country but one commodity in china is very flat. Guess what? It is education which is the essential commodity for people from non flat world to compete with flat world people. For my cousin to be competitive in the cities first he has to acquire the right skills to succeed in this fast paced world. In near future I clearly don’t see India to be a flat country but with spiky regions. People from non flat regions of the country will definitely find hard to plug and play within the country but they should try to be the “Change Agents” to change India into a flat country.