K3 and the 3 Ts

[imomus]

It's hard to believe that Möllevången -- the funky-yuppie area at the centre of Malmö where I gave my Down With Fun lecture last night -- was, just a decade ago, considered a dangerous area, the kind of place where women don't feel secure walking around alone at night. Now it's a tidy place with multi-ethnic restaurants, cosy cafes playing Black Uhuru and serving chai latte, art project spaces, and lots of open wifi. Late-opening Iraqi and Afghan groceries light the corners, and young people throng the streets.



There's no mystery about the transformation of Möllevången. Everyone I asked explained it with one decisive event: the opening, in 1998, of K3, advertised at the time as "the new digital Bauhaus". K3 is a government-funded School of Arts and Communication which describes itself as "a multidisciplinary research and educational school working within two broad areas: design and culture and media" (I count three there -- or possibly one -- which suggests that we're dealing here with people more attuned to art than arithmetic). K3 isn't exactly an art school, but the three Ks in its nickname are Konst, Kultur and Kommunikation; art, culture and communication. (The Krets Gallery staff told me that someone from K3's Subcultural Strategies department came to see my lecture but couldn't get in because there were already too many people inside -- her entrance strategy was blocked by too-much-subculture, maybe.)

Now, all this tends to support Richard Florida's ideas about the positive power of the creative class in transforming post-industrial economies. Knowledge-based economies depend, he says, on a growing creative class (up to 40% of the population, by his definition) whose ideas fuel the new forms of economic growth. Florida drew up an index based on what he calls the three Ts -- talent, technology and tolerance. In his book "Flight of the Creative Class" he ranks nations into a "creativity index". The Top 10 for the 3 Ts, according to Florida, are Sweden, Japan (together again at numbers one and two!), Finland, USA, Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway and Germany.

Not everyone agrees. One Anon yesterday commented "Richard Florida's a dink. Sweden's the most tolerant country, except when it comes to Muslims ... blacks ... freedom of expression, etc. etc. etc. Basically, anyone who isn't Swedish or at least non-Muslim European and has views that aren't suspect by the national culture or government." But it seems to me that, in Möllevången at least, there's plenty of ethnic diversity. If there are tolerant bits of Sweden, they're in these "creative class" areas. Florida calls Swedish values "soft" ones -- tolerance, openness, equal opportunities, and social care -- and says that these are central to economic growth in knowledge economies. What he means, clearly, is that you don't expand your economy without liberal political values. He's using Sweden, to some extent, as a stick to beat Bush's America with.



Florida's creativity index puts Scandinavia far ahead of any other region -- the most creative area in the world. (I struggle, though, to find the name of a single Swedish contemporary artist who's really made a splash internationally in the last ten years or so. The Danish Olafur Eliasson is probably Scandinavia's most successful artist. He lives and works in Berlin now.) Florida attributes Sweden's success to Korean-style educational and computer literacy rates. You could also wonder whether being a bit chilly doesn't also boost a nation's rankings: most of his top ten creativity hotspots are freezing.

Talking to Swedes after my lecture, I showed them Inglehart's Cultural Values map on my iPod, pointing out how Sweden and Japan were almost alone at the top right hand corner, the place where self expression values dominate over survival values, and secular-rational values over traditional and religious ones. Some Swedish-resident Americans who were interviewing me weren't at all convinced that Swedes were "self-expressive". They thought there was a conformism here, a pack mentality. A Swedish psychologist said that he preferred to call this a "collectivist" mindset, which of course the Japanese also share. I then wondered whether you couldn't be both collectivist and self-expressive; after all, Japanese street fashion is both the most flamboyantly expressive in the world and the most collectivist-conformist. We tend to assume that only notionally-separate, unique individuals can be "expressive", but why not entire groups (the 3T 3K types milling around Möllevången), classes (the "creative class"), nations (Sweden, Japan) and areas (Scandinavia)? After all, expression is communication, and that takes two. Or do I mean three?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

If Sweden is so great, when are you moving there?

[olamina.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. I don't fully understand how they arrived at that graph but it's an interesting starting point for conversation....

I recently moved from Greenpoint Brooklyn where I was a "creative class"-er to suburban Slovenia where I am still sort of figuring things out. I have been thinking a lot about what sector I should put my energies into and what I can contribute here. I've found people here to be wildly accepting of individual quirkiness (just check out this al-jazeera profile of the outgoing president (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unicG1xbBJk)) but not much for risk-taking or individuality or all that American maverick. Of course, that may all change as the country moves away from Tito's Yugoslavia values and towards more "Europeanized" ideals. While I have been shying away from creative pursuits as of late for fear I'll live in poverty forever, I am interested to check out Florida's book and reconsider it.

Thanks again!

[xoskeleton.livejournal.com]

I just don't understand this graph at all. Why is uruguay in the light green "catholic europe" section? uruguay is surely no more catholic or european than say argentina? shouldn't it have its own little color island like greece and israel? and what does that big red border symbolize? if it's ex-commie countries why are some of them in the red section? are they more ex-communist?

[nofact.livejournal.com]

Uruguay switched positions with Portugal, wich is in the "latin america" area and should be in "catholic europe".

[(Anonymous)]

I worry about any chart that puts black Africa at one pole, of anything, and blonde white people at the other. Even if it's 'liberal-leaning'. Like the measuring of intellect, by measures that utterly flatter your own, or 'aggressive people' (rather than, say, paranoic situations or encounters).

Isn't it chart of how much Richard Florida likes the interior designers?

[(Anonymous)]

Ronald Inglehart, I mean.

self expression africa vs europe

[rinusvanalebeek.livejournal.com]

search google
"self expression" africa 638.000 hits
"self expression" europe 646.000 hits

doesn't mean anything at all,
but it shows a lot of colours as well.

greetings from sunny bordeaux

[olamina.livejournal.com]

I agree.

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

It's questionable in other ways as well. Like, for example, the rating of China over Estonia in "secular/rational" values, which points to the issue of the lack of ways to express having secular/rational values in some aspects of society and traditional ones in others, especially when "traditional" is not necessarily opposed to "secular" or "rational" in a lot of societies.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Well, we have that collective mind to thank for the welfare years of the 20th century. Even the rightwingers voted for a more socialist economy. Hence the high taxes, though they where even bigger 30 years ago!

[jenny-junkie.livejournal.com]

But why is Portugal under Latin America and Uruguay under Catholic Europe?

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

" I pointed out how Sweden and Japan were almost alone at the top right hand corner, the place where self expression values dominate over survival values, and secular-rational values over traditional and religious ones."

You've read that chart wrong.

Sweden is ahead of every other country in regards to self-expression and only behind Japan in regards to rational-secular values. but Japan is behind a lot of countries in regards to self-expression values -- It's behind the entire Anglosphere and the majority of western Europe, even some Latin American countries.


I'm dubious of Florida's chart. I guess you could measure a country's secularism by the percentage of the population who follow a religion, but how do you measure something like self expression?

I came across this on Florida's wikipedia page:

"Researchers have critiqued Florida's work for shortcomings in its methodology. Terry Nichols Clark (University of Chicago) has used Florida's own data-sets to question the much-touted correlation between the presence of significant numbers of gay men in a city and the presence of high-technology knowledge industries."

Im also sceptical of this. High technology industries arent there because of gay men, gay men and high technology industries are there because of large population masses.

A lot of Gay people all across the UK usually decide in their late teens/early 20s that they want to move to London or a big city such as Manchester; Its purely because they feel isolated in other smaller part of the UK and want to be able to socialise with other gay people.

Brighton is a good example of a town that has a very large gay community but yet doesnt have high technology industries. It's purely about social networking.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

The customs of Japan are massive and impressive. Seriously.

Oh, by the way, did you know that if someone burned our flag we wouldn't care.

Flagburner: "Ah, what do you say now! WE're burning your flag!"

Swede: "Yeah? We have more!"

[(Anonymous)]

Flag burning seems to be something people care about in cultures where becoming part of a nation is a right of passage. If nations are less accepting of immigrants into their fold (such as continental Europe), and people born into the nation are guaranteed an exclusive position above others, people usually care less about the whole concept of nationhood ... there's less to gain in it.

Of course, one could always say flag wavers stupid fat Americans with no culture and giant cheeseburgers and pizza and rock and roll cowboy disney.

[(Anonymous)]

Yep, Dickie Florida makes a living off confusing correlation with causality. It's like reading those studies which say that something like golf can extend your life by 10 years. Which doesn't mean there's anything healthful about swinging a golf club, it just means that those people who can afford to eat well, avoid stress, and have decent health care, are also able to afford to go out on golf trips. Why even bother to do that study!?

social networking.

[(Anonymous)]

There is a lot of security in numbers as well as political clout with numbers. It's obvious with the number of alternative lifestyle people in politics and positions of authority. An example being the general in charge of the airborne forces UN. from Holland.

[bonsai-human.livejournal.com]

You've read that chart wrong.

You've saved me from having to lift a finger yet again.

[eclectiktronik.livejournal.com]

"I then wondered whether you couldn't be both collectivist and self-expressive; after all, Japanese street fashion is both the most flamboyantly expressive in the world and the most collectivist-conformist."

I think there is an irreconcilable paradox here. The flamboyance is still about group identity and the need to belong. That is incompatible with not concerning oneself about what others think - surely a prerequisite for genuinely free individual expression.

One must not confuse flamboyance and individuality. In the case of Japan, I think it's self expression as 'uniform individuality' - flamboyance is what is expected in some quarters. it's conforming to unwritten behaviour codes. When I think of what I saw on a visit to Japan, and the above points, I can't help remembering this quote from the Nathan Barley series:

" ....Stuff and shit is cool.The idiots are self-regarding consumer slaves, oblivious to the paradox of their uniform individuality. They sculpt their hair to casual perfection. They wear their waistbands below their balls. They babble into handheld twit machines ...."

...Like the so called 'urban tribes' you find in every western country, supposedly people who dare to be different - goths, punks, rappers etc. These groups may call themselves nonconformist, but in reality have sets of very clear codes and unwritten rules to which members have to adhere. Their 'being different' largely comes down to the superficial, to cosmetic and aesthetic differences between said group and wider society (making a 'look' the marketable commodity par excellence; as such its capacity for rebellion is pretty much emasculated .)

Japanese society with its many codes and unwritten rules is no different. Flamboyance may be there, but if it is the fashion to be flamboyant, that's hardly self expression is it?

[(Anonymous)]

"I think there is an irreconcilable paradox here. The flamboyance is still about group identity and the need to belong. That is incompatible with not concerning oneself about what others think - surely a prerequisite for genuinely free individual expression."

No, the paradox is that you are either always being influenced by and following others more of less directly (whilst putatively exercising 'taste'), in fashion etc or you are defining your individuality as being antithetical to whatever the group mentality is, hence its following exactly the outline of the group (in negative). Radical freedom would generally be viewed as mental disorder (or genius).

[sonjaaa.livejournal.com]

The swedes have a special word for this kind of pack mentality... lagom. avoiding to be too different...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagom

[klasensjo.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how you came to this conclusion regarding the word. The article translates the word "lagom" to "enough, sufficient, adequate, just right".

I would argue that the word "lagom" can be related to a rejection of massconsumption, not avoiding to be different. It could be seen as inherently different per definition.

[sonjaaa.livejournal.com]

Ask a Swede about it. It also means you want to avoid standing out or being not-normal.

[klasensjo.livejournal.com]

I just asked myself ;)

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Hmm, how shall we explain this klasensjö? :)

Pouring up coffee: It is lagom when the reciever says stop. Then the coffeepourer ask: "Is it lagom?". "Yes", says the recieveer, takes a sip of the coffee and concludes, "it is lagom".

[(Anonymous)]

Olafur Eliasson is Icelandic I guess but born in Copenhagen. Both Sweden and Denmark have "right wing" goverments tough on crime and immigrants at the moment.

[ex-newironsh15.livejournal.com]

the americans were stunted by their Hobbesian ontological perspective. they can't help it.

top ten creativity hotspots are freezing.

[pay-option07.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming that huddling for warmth has something in common
with creativity and reindeer.

[akabe.livejournal.com]

it's not sweden but just across the water in kopenhagen last year i was quite blown away to see and spend some time in parks with large groups of chinese people knocked out and totally tuned out on alcohool-like beverages. now i don't know nor do i really care about the background , and i know i'm making big generalizations about chinese migrants' industriousness and capacity for survival , but the scene did speak tons about north-european liberalism.

chinese or inuits?

[(Anonymous)]

are you sure they were chinese? and not inuits? you know that greenland is danish.

[(Anonymous)]

What makes Sweden so creative? Are they pioneers in nanotechnology, genetics, astrobiology, etc.? Or do they rehash old 1960s furniture that's currently popular with upper middle class types and hipsters stuck in the late 90s?

Japan is a creative powerhouse, but they aren't as collectivist as you think; remember that story where the government let that guy starve to death because he was officially described as being "weak", "lazy", and "deserved" to die because he didn't work hard enough? Sounds strangely familiar to the country that we all love to hate that's also a creative powerhouse.

Self-expression values not that individualistic?

[maimelodi.livejournal.com]

Maybe the conformism in Sweden (contrasted with american individualism) is not at odds with the Inglehart map after all (I'm 'the psychologist', or rather ph d student i p.). If you look only at the self-expression scale USA and Sweden is really quit close. The big difference is in secular-rational values. Back to the self-expression scale, american individualism seems closely tied to 'making it' economically, and also the support for death penalty and right to guns are clearly survival values. So maybe it is enough for Sweden to score high on some of the self-expression values, maybe 'trust and political moderation' and gender equality to come to the top of the scale. And remember that this is values, it might be easier to VALUE self expression in an affluent, homogenous population were people see themselves as a bit boring. This was Sweden in the 80s.

[(Anonymous)]

Ever since I moved to Sweden I've been saying it's the Japan of Europe! Swedes don't agree but thanks for posting that map! To be more correct, Sweden is the Japan of the Eastern Hemisphere or something.

Sweden has the collectiveness and the attention to details that Japan is famous for. However I don't find Sweden to be particularly creative. They're more designers than artists. They make things work really well. But everything feels the same; they don't take risks. Maybe the Japanese are the same, but their past culture and civilisation is so present and alien and rich and ancient, compared to Sweden, that it occults the lack of individuality.
Mmmh cultural generalisations are fun.

Countries: another list

[(Anonymous)]

Well, some countries need a well-subsidised false conscience design-industry—another part of their marketing—when in reality the Swedes swamp the world with big bussiness like Ikea (btw, founded by a nazi), Abba & ARMS: top 10 World's largest arms Exporters 1990-2006:

1. USA
2. Russia
3. Germany
4. France
5. UK
6. Netherlands
7. Sweden
8. Italy
9. China
10. Ukraine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry#World.27s_largest_arms_Exporters
(researched by Stockholm based SIPRI) Countries with tiny populations, NL & Sweden, doing their bit at being clever, keeping up w./ the big ones;.I suppose tax returns on these high-tech, innovative exports, causing mayhem elsewhere, do guarantee the creative flock at home lotsa statesponsoreship, causing quite a bit of high selfregard as well hehehe.

Re: Countries: another list

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The Creativity List (again) is:

1. Sweden
2. Japan
3. Finland
4. USA
5. Switzerland
6. Denmark
7. Iceland
8. Netherlands
9. Norway
10. Germany.

I resist your implication that arms dealing is the bottom line and that creativity is mere window-dressing. Why privilege arms dealing as "the true thing" and art / design as "false conscience"? Why not see them, rather, as the dark and light sides of the same kind of ingenuity? Turned to good or bad use? Then there are some interesting questions we can ask about the nations which only appear on one list. Japan, for instance, is only in the creative Top 10, not the destructive one. Italy and the UK make the destructiveness 10 but not the creativeness 10. And so on.