The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Susan Falls, anthropologist, deep thinker and all-around interesting conversationalist. Read on for Susan’s ideas on how to position Savannah for a viable future…for everyone!
The new global economy is characterized by a shift from the production of manufactured goods to the manufacture of information, knowledge, and financial instruments. Contemporary globalization is also marked by highly regulated flows of people, goods, technology, capital, and ideologies. These flows impact the formation of communities, ideas about who we think we are and where we think we are going, and basic governing practices.
So, where is Savannah in all of this? Granted, we do not have a large, diverse population, an R-1 research university, a financial market, or boatloads of venture capital looking for a home like most large, global cities. But, we do have a big port, are located on a major interstate between two sites of import/export, New York and Miami, and have an airport plus airplane manufacturing. We have a gigantic military base, several colleges, and a sizable tourist presence, all of which bring people from far-flung locations to this relatively small city. The population is full of wonderful, eccentric and talented people and Savannah has the potential to attract other creative people that can contribute to the momentum.
Contemporary globalization, as David Harvey points out in his superb book, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, is driven by a theory of political economic practices proposing that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade.
This model, which has been dominating international economic policy since the 1970s, is based on a “free market” ideology: it is known for de-emphasizing the role of government, privileging privatization, deregulating certain markets (for instance, the financial market), and cutting public expenditures.
It is also an increasingly hegemonic mode of city management. For an excellent analysis of how this model has shaped American cities, see Mike Davis’ book on LA, City of Quartz, or Julian Brash’s Bloomberg’s New York: Class and Governance in the Luxury City. Both Davis and Brash demonstrate how pushing policy through the crucible of neoliberal governance advances specific class interests.
The results have been the same at other scales of economy (national and international): wealth is siphoned upwards, the aesthetic character of the landscape shifts, and city populations become increasingly homogenous.
We have already seen demographic shifting on the basis of race, class and education as a result of development in Savannah. Some of these shifts have been due to vagaries of the global economy. In order to improve the likelihood of providing meaningful, fulfilling jobs that undergrid an interesting, diverse economy, we need to do some brainstorming in three key areas: education, labor and entrepreneurial policy. Meanwhile, let’s try to avoid some of the more deleterious consequences of neoliberal governance. Let’s use taxes, labor policy and a more inclusive definition of creative capital to make the city better for EVERYONE!
- Education:
I think everyone can agree that the school system in Savannah can be improved. There are many smart, committed people working hard to find ways to enhance education using frameworks already in place. I am not an expert in primary education, but I do know that students need to learn how to think, read and write critically if they are going to play a meaningful role in the new global economy.Here is an idea to augment existing efforts: Apparently, over 11 million visitors come here every year, spending over $1.2 billion dollars. Let’s tax each person a dollar (that’s at least 11 million dollars), and spend it all on the local school system.
With this huge fund, we could create year–long fellowships for accomplished, nationally or internationally known scientists, artists, writers and thinkers to come and work with our students in ways that will boost the underfunded, overly mandated curriculum.
We could create scholarships to help students pursue MA’s or PhD’s with the understanding that they will return to give back to Savannah’s education system in some significant way (which is a stipulation many countries use when funding higher education for their citizens).
We also need better libraries and teaching resources/opportunities that the state simply does not have the money (or perhaps the inclination) to provide.
And, taxing tourists a dollar will not stop anyone from coming. Obviously, long-term investment in the schools will help nurture the kind of intelligent, skilled, and innovative work force many employers say they need.
- Jobs:
There are not enough good manufacturing jobs here, but promoting a narrative of low union-free labor costs to bring manufacturers here is not a good strategy for raising the standard of living for everyone. This policy fosters a “race to the bottom” job market.As a city in a right-to-work state, Savannah, in order to position itself as a progressive city that cares about all of its residents, should instead consider promoting a wage policy that allows people to live in economic peace. The minimum hourly income necessary for a worker to achieve economic peace, that is to meet basic needs, is well above the minimum wage.
Yes, there are legal issues to be navigated, and yes, it would cut into profits, but it would also raise the living standard, desirability of living here, and overall community health. The pay off, as in educational reform, is in the long run. Wages for people working in financial or information industries are generally higher than in manufacturing, but good jobs in both kinds of production are necessary to absorb our population and promote sustainable civic health.
- Entrepreneurial Spirit:
It is exciting to consider creative capital as a potential motor of local economic development. This metaphor comes out of cultural theory developed by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to explain relationships between social positioning (basically, class), economic resources and other forms of “wealth” (like education, or your social network) and power. The idea is that creative capital can be “exchanged” for other forms of capital, economic, social or otherwise.But what is meant by creative capital, or the creative class? And how can an entrepreneurial policy foster or attract creative capital?
The creative class is often described as tech savvy web designers and graphics workers, but the kinds of creative labor that transform cities come from many quarters: musicians, curators, scholars, artists and people in the non-profit sector are also members of the creative class and their work must be supported, if not courted.The people who routinely “think outside the box” are, after all, the ones that come up with innovative ideas.
Now, keep in mind that one of the most powerful elements of creative activity is that it can fail – its potential to succeed, in fact, is predicated on the possibility of failure. People operating in the creative arena, then, need to be given a very wide berth.Parameters for public art, for example, must be open, given over to the vision of the artist. Since policy makers are not often experts in art, their most effective role is in facilitation: by holding international calls, pursuing the avant garde, and proving an opportunity for spectacular success (or failure), Savannah can accumulate creative capital in this domain.
So, creative capital can be an important motor of positive change, but, as is the case for education and labor reform, it does not always mean immediate revenue production.
I hope that I have provided some food for thought and I look forward to having a discussion about the ideas I have outlined!
Susan