Richard Florida

Richard L. Florida (born November 26, 1957, in Newark, New Jersey) is an American urban studies theorist focusing on social and economic theory. He is currently a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.Florida received a PhD from Columbia University in 1986. Prior to joining George Mason University's School of Public Policy, where he spent two years, he taught at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College in Pittsburgh from 1987 to 2005. He was named a Senior Editor at The Atlantic in March 2011 after serving as a correspondent for TheAtlantic.com for a year. 2Education Florida graduated from Rutgers College in 1979 with a B.A. in political science. He then attended Columbia University where he studied urban planning (M.Phil. in 1984 and Ph.D. in 1986). 2Personal life Florida lives in Toronto and Miami and is married to Rana Florida. 2Research and theories Florida is best known for his concept of the creative class and its implications for urban regeneration. This idea was expressed in Florida's best-selling books The Rise of the Creative Class (2002), Cities and the Creative Class, and The Flight of the Creative Class, and later published a book focusing on the issues surrounding urban renewal and talent migration, titled Who's Your Cit