Within the creative class we have seen a trend towards entering the service industry. This discussion was fruitful and brought up many thought provoking ideas as to why this may be occuring in the present day. One idea that resonated with me personally was that these highly educated millenials are going into cities and taking the jobs that some people of the lower classes depend on. I believe there are two ways to go about thinking of this comment.
In one way we can see that these highly educated people are not actually taking these jobs, but are really working in a different job market. What the creative class does is that they enter into a place that is up-and-coming and they create new businesses that are ultimately more succesful than the businesses they are driving out. This is creating competition, but these more high-end businesses are in a different sector than the lower priced ones. If a person wants to get an artisan brewed beer in the city, than there is a place for them. If somebody wants to go to a cheaper bar than there is also a place for them. The places serving the more wealthy by virtue must employ people with more cultural capital. This means they need people with college degrees and the ability to associate and align with the wealthy class that they are serving.
To oppose this thought we can also see it from the side of those beign driven out of their business and community. With this new class coming in and gentrifying the area they are not only losing their livelihood, but also the place they live. With increasing prices of living the ability to feel comfortable in this neighborhood is impossible and thus they move out to somewhere cheaper and once again underserved. This is not seen as simple competition within the urban context, but an attack on the lives that they used to live. When we bring in the idea of Black Branding we can see how trying to celebrate the formerly black poplus can be even more offensive. This place was taken from a people and now the new populus is attempting the culture that was formerly there.
Although gentrification is often a very negative subject we can attempt to think about how this can create new walks of life and improve the urban environment within America. By pumping money into American cities we can see more wealth being developed and created in the city. At the same time due to the nature of Capitalism there must be a group that gets the short end of the stick and loses. For most examples those that lose are ethnic minorities. Will there ever be a time when these groups will have oppurtunities to not just break even within the American system, but to actually excel? Only time can tell us this answer.
I think you bring up an interesting point with these two perspectives on the creative class. On the one hand, creating a new, niche market can be a good thing, where more people’s wants and needs are being met. On the other, taking jobs away from lower class members is a serious issue. The idea that both markets can coexist, that of the creative and that of the lower class, is a concept that is worth exploring. If someone wants regular cheese, I don’t see how the artisan cheese shop would cater to their needs and so still allow the average person to still have their average cheese business. But of course, the problem is that when a critical mass of creative shops open up , that paves the way for gentrification, thus pushing out the old timers. I kind of wonder what drives the creative class to set up shop in certain places and not in others. Why start your fancy oil business on the same street as a family owned oil business instead of going on the street with all the other creative businesses? From what I gathered, many people of the creative class are kind of selfish and don’t really think abut these things when they decide to open. I don’t want to say that the creative class shouldn’t exist and shouldn’t have the right to live their life, but I feel that more thought has to be put into how they establish themselves in certain places and the repercussions of their decisions.
While I do see the issues that the creative class creates with respect to taking jobs away from lower class members, I do not believe that a reasonable argument can be made to support the statement that creative class members are selfish. This point about the creative class being selfish came up in class, and as I’ve had time to reflect more on this statement, I’ve come to believe that there is a sociological analysis that can be explored to explain their actions that goes much deeper than “selfishness” and helps provide more of an understanding of the motivations of this creative class. As we are all technically considered members of the creative class, I think it is important to explore the forces that drive us and our actions. In a previous class, we talked about how when members of society feel inadequate in the mainstream economy, they will seek out alternative ways to gain capital. The creative class is certainly demonstrating a desire to embrace nonconformist ways of doing things and thus finding alternative ways to gain capital in society. Thus, I wonder if, rather than from selfishness, the actions of the creative class stem from disillusionment with the mainstream paths that are laid out for them. Many of us are expected to graduate from college, go on to find a job and form a family. These same expectations certainly are imposed on creative class members that we read about in our readings, so I wonder if their decisions to drop everything and open up artisanal cheese shops are a form of rebellion against these expectations.