The World is Not Flat - It's Spiky

 Thomas Friedman taught us that the world is flat, but Richard Florida says otherwise. Florida, who is best known for his book and his thoughts about the creative class and the importance of this burgeoning section of society, says that the world is spiky.

In a series of maps, Florida shows us first where the world's population centres are. In further maps, he then goes on to show where many of the world's patents are issued and where the 1 200 most quoted scientists of the world are located. The purpose is to show us that while much of the world is urban (over 50% world wide now compared to just 3% in 1800), that the ability to innovate and create is centred among remarkably few places in the world. Some cities around the globe are towers of patent filings, population, and science (New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, Tokyo, Shanghai), but other major population centres (Mexico City, Cairo, Paris, Rio) almost completely disappear off of these maps. Florida says that the world's major cities that are centres of innovation have little to fear from globalisation and that these centres are often more linked with other alike international cities then they are with other urban areas in their own nations. A large population does not necessarily mean innovation and development. Although certainly any major urban centre has people who are developing new products or services in it, there are few cities that are globally important sites.

This worries me. Although Friedman's book is challenging, it offers hope to people like me who live in isolated areas. The quote "innovate, not emigrate" is meaningful for people living in rural areas. Although a flat world means we are competing with people across the globe, a flat world means that we all have an opportunity. A spiky world is something different altogether. A spiky world has centres of population that are world drivers of creativity, and much of the rest of the world languishes in valleys of non - innovation. More and more people move towards these centres and they become increasingly important.  

Educational implications?

First of all, this continues to mean that classrooms helping kids to become creative problem solvers with world - class skills are increasingly important. Having the skills needed to join the creative class is the best opportunity that students will have to be competitive and cooperative in the global world.  Second of all, it means that people in rural areas are going to have to fight harder then ever to ensure that their needs are met and that they have a voice in this world. Small schools, divisions, and classrooms can get lost very quickly if they are outside of these global centres of innovation. It is also interesting to note that among all of the work that has been completed over the last several years about globalizing economies and creative economies, very little has been said about education. Creative people, able to stimulate knowledge growth come from somewhere, why is education still so undervalued?

This is interesting, important work, and finding where education fits into an increasingly business oriented, commercial world is of vital importance. Teachers need to understand the implications of the flat world, the spiky world, the creative world for their teaching and their students. Without it, we're still filling out worksheets.

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Comments

[Ewan McIntosh]

Coming from a European, nay Scottish, setting, we feel the world is spiky whenever we hear our US colleagues talking. I've written about the Spikiness of the world before: http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2005/12/the_world_is_no.html

It's not that the US is always doing things better, bigger, brasher. It's that whatever happens in Europe we can sometimes have the feeling that it's not 'official', 'real' or worth anything until a US commentator, journalist or blogger picks it up and states that it is so.