The Geography of the European Creative Class A Rank-Size Analysis

Using novel statistical data, the paper analyzes the geographical distribution of Richard Florida’s creative class among 445 European cities. The paper demonstrates that size matters, i.e. cities with a high proportion of creative class tend to get more creative through attraction of still more creative labor. More specifically, the distribution of the European creative class falls into three phases, each approximating a rank-size rule, with different exponents (i.e., inequality). The exponent for the smallest cities is profoundly more negative than for the middle-sized cities, and this tendency is stronger for the creative class than for the general population. Furthermore, the exponent of the largest cities is slightly less negative than the middle-sized cities, and this tendency is also stronger for the creative class. In order to explain this, the paper presents four propositions about how effects of large and small population sizes of cities may be more detrimental to attracting the creative class than attracting the population in general. Below a population size of approximately 70,000 inhabitants, there is a rapid drop of attractiveness to the creative class with decreasing city size. We propose that this may be because below this size, cities begin to drop below minimum efficient market sizes for particular creative services, below minimum labor market sizes for particular creative job types, and below minimum levels of political representation by the creative class. Above a European city population size of approximately 1,2 million inhabitants, the attractiveness of increasing city size for the creative class drops, and we propose that the creative class may respond particularly adversely to urban congestion.

The Contingent Value of Networked Collaboration

Co-location of industry professionals often leads to development of collaboration networks, and multiple studies have emphasized the benefits of embedded collaboration. Due to higher levels of trust, embedded collaboration reduces transaction costs and facilitates ready knowledge exchanged. Other studies have pointed to dangers of over-embeddedness. The argument is that too high levels of embeddedness lead to habitual thinking, preferential treatment, and thereby mitigate performance. However, research on the conditions under which embeddedness in different types of collaboration networks primarily yields costs or benefits still leaves much to be investigated...

A Rank-Size Analysis

Using novel statistical data, the paper analyzes the geographical distribution of Richard Florida’s creative class among 445 European cities. The paper demonstrates that size matters, i.e. cities with a high proportion of creative class tend to get more creative through attraction of still more creative labor. More specifically, the distribution of the European creative class falls into three phases, each approximating a rank-size rule, with different exponents (i.e., inequality). The exponent for the smallest cities is profoundly more negative than for the middle-sized cities, and this tendency is stronger for the creative class than for the general population. Furthermore, the exponent of the largest cities is slightly less negative than the middle-sized cities, and this tendency is also stronger for the creative class. In order to explain this, the paper presents four propositions about how effects of large and small population sizes of cities may be more detrimental to attracting the creative class than attracting the population in general. Below a population size of approximately 70,000 inhabitants, there is a rapid drop of attractiveness to the creative class with decreasing city size. We propose that this may be because below this size, cities begin to drop below minimum efficient market sizes for particular creative services, below minimum labor market sizes for particular creative job types, and below minimum levels of political representation by the creative class. Above a European city population size of approximately 1,2 million inhabitants, the attractiveness of increasing city size for the creative class drops, and we propose that the creative class may respond particularly adversely to urban congestion

Big Egos in Big Science

In this paper we investigate the micro-mechanisms governing the structural evolution of a scientific collaboration. Empirical evidence indicates that we have transcended into a new paradigm with a new modus operandi where scientific discovery are not lead by so called lone ?stars?, or big egos, but instead by a group of people, from a multitude of institutions, having a diverse knowledge set and capable of operating more and more complex instrumentation Using a dataset consisting of full bibliometric coverage from a Large Scale Research Facility, we utilize a stochastic actor oriented model to estimate both the structural and performance effects of selection, as well as the behavioral of crossing organizational boundaries. Preliminary results suggest that the selection of collaborators still is skewed, and identify a large assortativity effect, as well as a tendency to interact with both authors with similar citations

Optimal Levels of Embeddedness: The Contingent Value of Networked Collaboration

Co-location of industry professionals often leads to development of collaboration networks, and multiple studies have emphasized the benefits of embedded collaboration. Due to higher levels of trust, embedded collaboration reduces transaction costs and facilitates ready knowledge exchanged. Other studies have pointed to dangers of over-embeddedness. The argument is that too high levels of embeddedness lead to habitual thinking, preferential treatment, and thereby mitigate performance. However, research on the conditions under which embeddedness in different types of collaboration networks primarily yields costs or benefits still leaves much to be investigated...