One of the key concepts in Richard Florida’s new book, “Who’s Your City?” is that of the “clustering force,” a knowledge-economy phenomenon that reward people for congregating in places where they can network and collaborate with one another. (See “The Clustering Force Be With You.”) The need to cluster is impelling smart, creative people to migrate to a handful of “superstar” cities where they can maximize the economic rewards of their talents and skills by pursuing innovative ideas with others like themselves. (See “Mass Migration and Superstar Cities.“)
The clustering force is one of the fundamental economic drivers at work in regional economies today. Because it is so ill appreciated, Florida devotes considerable ink to probing and dissecting it. And, because it is so fundamental to understanding the dynamics of regional economies, I devote yet another blog post to the topic.
As Florida observes, productivity and innovation come from face-to-face communication, information-sharing and teaming. Technology, as marvelous as it is, cannot yet substitute for intensive personal interaction.
Social capital is created, writes Florida, when people institutionalize these personal relationships through “bonding” and “bridging.” Bonding, he suggests, represents the close ties between extended families and ethnic communities of the type that Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam described and lamented the demise of in his book, “Bowling Alone.” Bonding is important for personal satisfaction and happiness, but not necessarily for innovation. Bridging, suggests Florida, is a pattern of interpersonal ties that extends across, and connects, different groups. For clustering and creativity, bridging is what counts.
I’ve quoted before the insights of Frans Johansson, whose book “The Medici Effect” describes how innovation takes place at the intersection of cultures, disciplines and worldviews. Extrapolating from Johansson, bridging allows people of varied backgrounds to make connections that enable novel combinations of concepts and thoughts. Florida quotes Andrew Hargadon, of the University of California-Davis, as making a similar point.
[Bridging] changes the way people look at not just those different ideas they find in other worlds, it also changes the way they look at thoughts and actions that dominate their own. Bridging activities provide the conditions for creativity, for the Eureka moment when new possibilities suddenly become apparent.
Stanford University sociologist Mark Granovetter writes about “the strength of weak ties.” Numerous weak ties do more to foster innovation than fewer, more intimate ties. “The beauty of weak ties is that they bring us new information,” explains Florida. Numerous weak ties, if I might elaborate, exposes you to a wider variety of people and ideas. If you limit yourself to talking to the same people, who simply confirm what you already think, you’re far less likely to come up with breakthrough ideas.
Florida, ever the coiner of new terms, calls this creative interaction “making the scene.” For investment bankers, the “scene” is power lunches or company retreats in the Hamptons. For tech gurus, it’s breakfast meetings, beer bashes or bicycle rides. Hollywood has a scene. Nashville has a scene.
Here’s the takeaway for Virginia regions trying to build their human capital: Scenes require social and economic infrastructure. Unfortunately, Florida drops that thought and doesn’t tell us what the infrastructure is. Picking up on the theme, I would suggest that the “infrastructure” for “scenes” is the existence of networking groups that allow a wide range of people to plug in and connect with one another. Those networking groups may be chambers of commerce or technology councils. They may be clubs like the Tower Club in Fairfax County, or the Bull & Bear Club in Richmond. They may be venture forums, or women’s business associations, or young professional organizations, or metro leadership conferences, or tipster clubs.
I would submit a hypothesis: The capacity of a region for innovation can be measured by the number of formal and informal networking organizations that create “bridging” opportunities across the broadest possible spectrum of society. The richer and denser the skein of bridging networks, the more easily ideas can be communicated through a region, the more spontaneously creative ideas will erupt, and the more speedily people can convert novel notions into business opportunities.
Economy 4.0: If Virginia regions want to build human capital, one place they can start is by encouraging the proliferation of networking groups of all shapes, kinds and colors, through which people — especially those outside the traditional elites — can share ideas and help make things happen. Openness and tolerance are virtues highly correlated with economic dynamism, as Florida often preaches. Those traits extend bridging networks and exchange of ideas to the broadest possible number of people.
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