Fascination with and the need to attract the creative class

Chapter 2 provides a review of the fascination with the need to attract creative workers. It discusses the main theories used in relation to creative worker migration: traditional theories (Ravenstein, 1889), human capital theories (Sjaastad, 1962), and theories of the creative class (Florida, 2002). It then explores the conceptualisation within positive psychology of the asocial ‘creative individual’ (Maslow, 1943, 1971) which underlies Florida’s creative class theory. Particular attention is given to the ways in which Maslow characterises the creative individual as masculine, authentic, and independent. Next, we review the literature on work in the creative industries and the empirical evidence on creative worker migration. Here we argue against taking a neoclassical perspective based on the modelled behaviour of the individual economic actor (King, 2012), and instead detail the critical realist perspective adopted for this research (Iosifides, 2011; Bakewell, 2010; Collinson, 2009) along with its biographical approach.