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creativity
September 2009 
Who Is Your Megaregion?
Posted on Apr 26th, 2008
by 
Praveer
Praveer
Richard Florida has an intriguing question and a twist to the old marketing nostrum - "Location, location, location".
Richard Florida is the author of the 2002 best-seller The Rise of the Creative Class (Harper Collins), which received The Washington Monthly's Political Book Award, and more recently, in March 2008, a look at his hypothesis, called megaregions, in Who Is Your City? (Basic Books).
He asks. "Are you considering your next big career move?"
In "Who's Your City?," Richard Florida explains why this decision should be all about location, location, location - and profiles the top new regions with the greatest potential for career growth, and great companies.
Talent, innovation, and creativity - three crucial economic ingredients, according to Florida - are unevenly distributed across today's global economy. They concentrate in specific locations. The real source of economic growth comes from the clustering of talented and productive people. New ideas are generated and our productivity increases when we locate close to one another in cities and regions. The clustering force makes each of us more productive, which in turn makes the places we inhabit much more productive, generating great increases in output and wealth.
Because of this clustering force, a new constellation of cities and surrounding regions - not just in the United States, but in Europe and Asia - have turned into new engines of economic growth. Cities and their metropolitan corridors are morphing into new "megaregions," and magnets for great jobs and great companies alike.
I've given up adding more maps - my comp keeps hanging - but you can check out
http://creativeclass.com/whos_your_city/maps/
for a megaregion near you.
http://creativeclass.com/whos_your_city/maps/
Florida says that the day of the city or country as fundamental economic unit is over. Instead, he focuses on megaregions, broad swathes of cities and connecting suburbs found throughout the world. With satellite data showing lighted areas of the globe at night and finely tuned economic stats, Florida and other researchers have named over 40 different megaregions, with 13 in North America alone. A simple test for a megaregion? "A person can walk all the way across from one side to the other carrying nothing but a credit card and never get hungry or thirsty.", says Florida
I live plonk in the middle of the Delhi Lahore megaregion, according to this. I love the idea of India and Pakistan being joined in an enterprise that is productive and raises the quality of life. However, the electricity goes out several times a day, anywhere in this region, currently. And, if I had to rely on a credit card in this 'megaregion', I'd starve to death. What works here is your word: "I'll pay you when I return from Baluchistan after I've sold all these lovely carpets you've handwoven - if the bandits don't get me first." is a bit more like it! (Yes, I am exaggerating, but its not too far off.)
A megaregion must meet three key criteria. First, it must be a contiguous, lighted area with more than one major city center. Second, it must have a population of 5 million or more. Finally, it must produce more than $100 billion in goods and services. By that definition, there are some 40 megaregions in the world. If we take the largest megas in terms of population:
* The 10 biggest are home to 666 million people, or 10 percent of world population.
* The top 20 comprise 1.1 billion people, 17 percent of the world population;
* The top 40 are home to 1.5 billion people, 23 percent of global population.
It's an intriguing view into global development and the rise and rise of opportunity, creativity, innovation and personal growth.
Can these regions sustain themselves with regard to food, water and electricity? How about taxes? Will they be higher here? What would be an Integralist/Spiral Dynamics view?
Richard Florida is the author of the 2002 best-seller The Rise of the Creative Class (Harper Collins), which received The Washington Monthly's Political Book Award, and more recently, in March 2008, a look at his hypothesis, called megaregions, in Who Is Your City? (Basic Books).
He asks. "Are you considering your next big career move?"
In "Who's Your City?," Richard Florida explains why this decision should be all about location, location, location - and profiles the top new regions with the greatest potential for career growth, and great companies.
Talent, innovation, and creativity - three crucial economic ingredients, according to Florida - are unevenly distributed across today's global economy. They concentrate in specific locations. The real source of economic growth comes from the clustering of talented and productive people. New ideas are generated and our productivity increases when we locate close to one another in cities and regions. The clustering force makes each of us more productive, which in turn makes the places we inhabit much more productive, generating great increases in output and wealth.
Because of this clustering force, a new constellation of cities and surrounding regions - not just in the United States, but in Europe and Asia - have turned into new engines of economic growth. Cities and their metropolitan corridors are morphing into new "megaregions," and magnets for great jobs and great companies alike.
Mega-Regions of Asia
I've given up adding more maps - my comp keeps hanging - but you can check out
http://creativeclass.com/whos_your_city/maps/
for a megaregion near you.
http://creativeclass.com/whos_your_city/maps/
Florida says that the day of the city or country as fundamental economic unit is over. Instead, he focuses on megaregions, broad swathes of cities and connecting suburbs found throughout the world. With satellite data showing lighted areas of the globe at night and finely tuned economic stats, Florida and other researchers have named over 40 different megaregions, with 13 in North America alone. A simple test for a megaregion? "A person can walk all the way across from one side to the other carrying nothing but a credit card and never get hungry or thirsty.", says Florida
I live plonk in the middle of the Delhi Lahore megaregion, according to this. I love the idea of India and Pakistan being joined in an enterprise that is productive and raises the quality of life. However, the electricity goes out several times a day, anywhere in this region, currently. And, if I had to rely on a credit card in this 'megaregion', I'd starve to death. What works here is your word: "I'll pay you when I return from Baluchistan after I've sold all these lovely carpets you've handwoven - if the bandits don't get me first." is a bit more like it! (Yes, I am exaggerating, but its not too far off.)
A megaregion must meet three key criteria. First, it must be a contiguous, lighted area with more than one major city center. Second, it must have a population of 5 million or more. Finally, it must produce more than $100 billion in goods and services. By that definition, there are some 40 megaregions in the world. If we take the largest megas in terms of population:
* The 10 biggest are home to 666 million people, or 10 percent of world population.
* The top 20 comprise 1.1 billion people, 17 percent of the world population;
* The top 40 are home to 1.5 billion people, 23 percent of global population.
It's an intriguing view into global development and the rise and rise of opportunity, creativity, innovation and personal growth.
Can these regions sustain themselves with regard to food, water and electricity? How about taxes? Will they be higher here? What would be an Integralist/Spiral Dynamics view?
Access: Public
This is really interesting stuff. The city I live in is not on ANY of the maps on his website - I think it may actually be an imaginary city. I took the test and I should apparently either stay here or move to Minneapolis, and staying involves a lot less packing and effort.
I can see a lot of what Florida is talking about, I definitely experienced that on the west coast, that the bar was raised and the expectation of what was possible or even what was just expected was much higher than here in North Carolina. There are other considerations, though, and I wonder how the interwebs are going to affect global community? I've seen enormous changes over the past ten years and unless someone hits the reset button on civilization, those changes seem destined to continue and the effects of physical location become lessened then, don't they?
Also, the city I live in is small but there is a concentration of creative people here. I don't see any acknowledgment of that situation, but the concentration of creativity has to be important separate from the size of population, doesn't it?
Good article. As for me, I am a little disappointed to find myself plonk in the midst of a megaregion; would really like those out of the way places, going under the radar! Rapunzel, perhaps I'll move to your area?
Wonder if Richard's last name is any indication of why he called Miami-Ft Lauderdale a megaregion? Hmmmm….
Actually, the more I think about it…megaregion-shmegaregion. The stats are good but I'm not sure of the interpretation. These economice units or regions, have been around since the time of of the Persian Empire, The Nile Valley Civillization, the Romans, and so on till today, and they've always been marked by migrations of people wtih talent, innovation and creatitvity. The pyramids are …what? 5-6, 000 years old? They rank right up there with talent, innovation and creativity. As far as cities being fundamental economic units, I wonder if that's true. Cities have been central organizing units and central market places, which is not the same as an economic unit - and all cities are not economically successful. The economic units could be considered to be farms and actual production centers which are not neccesarily located in cities.
It could be that because the communication backbone and surface transportation system has become so strong today, that it doesn't matter where you are - there's the Web, as you point out, Jeannie, and telephony. And if you subscribe to the idea that markets are just conversations ( http://www.cluetrain.com/#manifesto ) and need nothing more than conversation - i.e. asking about needs, fulfilling needs, taking feedback on products and services, or just just talking to each other and developing relationships then it does look like a different ball game, but not a ball game called megaregions. The way megaregions look to me is like a modified industrial artifact. For me, the industrial age interrupted the conversations that people used to have with their local butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. The communication backbone that is evolving seems to be bringing that need back, and maybe that's what needs defining right now - there's an awful lot of communicating happening with immensely talented people right here on the Net. And Meenakshi - I'm sure the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale megaregion still has pleasant backwaters from where you can contribute powerfully on the Net!