My interview with CBC’s Matt Galloway is here.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 10:45 am and is filed under Cities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 9th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Dear Mr Florida,
I’ve been following your work for years now and lately, as someone who has moved out of being an ‘artist’ and into being a ‘tradesperson’, I have found that you seem to leave out the trades in your discussions of who will contribute to the new ecomony, or the economy of the future - do you consider them a part of the service sector? You seem to describe manufacturing work as being physical work, so I’m just not sure where the trades, carpentry, contruction, plumbing, landscaping etc, fit in with your view of the future. Who will build and maintain the creative projects designed by the elite creative class??
According to our government there have been so few people moving into the trades in the last few decades that they are seriously in need of new blood. And its funny too that many artists I know work in the trades as their second job - for as you may know most artists have to work 2 jobs to survive, and that the creative lines between the trades and the arts are often blurred, perhaps not in plumbing but who’s to say? I think it’s a fair guess to say the plumbing of the future will be a very different fish indeed.
As we move into a greener economy people who work in the trades will have to change the way things are made and made to work and that is going to require tremendous effort and re-education as these jobs become even more complex, requiring higher education, environmental sensitivity and computer skills etc. The trades should not be denigrated as they have been in the past,because people can find great independance, job satisfaction and good pay.
I know you’re not an elitist, by the way, I just want to know where the trades fit in with your future world view, and how you will be advising the government on that issue.It just hasn’t been clear to me as yet and maybe to others as well.
Thanks!
Christie