Book Reviews

More than a decade after RICHARD FLORIDA’s The Rise of the Creative Class (2002), the debate within Regional Studies on how to attract and retain talent has met with increasing interest and has had a very significant impact on the formulation and implementation of development policies. The subject is not consensual and the debate has explored the relationship between urban development and economic competitiveness in a global context through the generation of new flows of ideas, creativity and innovation derived from talent. The arguments concerning the benefits of attracting talent imply complementary perspectives. On the one hand, Florida’s ideas suggest that the emergence of the creative class has created a new paradigm in which labour opportunities follow talented people. However, further analysis has questioned this assumption, considering that talent mobility is mainly related to existing employment opportunities, linked to a territorial context that favours high levels of quality of life (STORPER and SCOTT, 2009). Thus, the more ‘traditional’ view that people follow jobs maintains its general validity. Although there is still no consensus, research into attracting talent has had a considerable influence on public policies. In recent years, the implementation of plans designed to strengthen the creative economy has revealed not only the positive aspects of the territorial dynamics but also problematic consequences that require further attention from Regional Studies. The collective book Seeking Talent for Creative Cities explores the layers of creative class in different territorial contexts. In confronting the empirical reality and existing literature, it reveals that economic perspectives, anchored in the significance of employment opportunities, and cultural perspectives, based on the relevance of lifestyle and amenities, are not sufficient in isolation to explain the complexity of the phenomenon. The book considers that it is more appropriate to use a hybrid approach that benefits from both traditions. The research directly addresses the underexplored topic of attracting and retaining talent, providing an insight into the specific mobility issues associated with different professional groups and types of cities. Using a common framework and methodology, it aims to understand the diverse and dynamic factors that contribute towards enhancing the capacity to attract talent in Canadian cities and the extent to which differences in city size, location, industrial fabric, lifestyle and occupational sectors need to be taken into account. The book is organized into five parts. Part I, ‘Seeking Talent for Innovation’, presents the general results of the study. Part II, ‘Attracting Creative Sector Workers’, reflects on seeking talent in different subsectors of the cultural and creative industries. Part III, ‘Attracting High-Technology Workers’, discusses the case of science and technology (S&T) professionals. Part IV, ‘Seeking Talent for Small Cities’, focuses on medium-sized and small towns. Part V, ‘Innovating in Talent Attraction’, sums up the research results and explores some of the implications for this area of study. The research shows that the size and centrality of cities are important factors in seeking talent in the different subsectors of the cultural and creative industries. Although cultural diversity is an important aspect of the attraction potential of cities, in the long run the ability to retain artists depends on how issues related to social exclusion are addressed in public policies. In the case of screenwriters, the conceptual models for cultural work, creative economy and creative cities do not apply easily since job opportunities for these workers are highly concentrated in particular locations. In the case of music, the ability to attract and retain talent results mainly from a subjective process based on individual expectations. The satisfaction of these expectations determines whether a musician will stay in a particular place. Thus, it is important to consider the implications of the available information on the region, as this may influence the expectations of visitorswho are potential future residents. Musicians often adapt well to smaller and more peripheral areas characterized by intense creative activity. The analysis of S&T professionals reveals that the mobility in high-tech areas is even more complex, varying according to individual motivations. Neither cultural nor economic paradigms alone can offer an explanation for this phenomenon. However, the existence of a pool of labour opportunities seems to be more relevant in the case of S&T than other groups within the creative class. It is therefore very unlikely that isolated policies to support creativity that do not consider the dynamics of employment creation will have a definitive impact on Regional Studies, 2016