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207 Conclusion Maps and Charters t h A n k s to t h e bestselling reach of journalist Thomas Friedman’s book The World Is Flat, the concept of the flat world is now established in the public mind as a spatial picture of the new global landscape of work. In that book and elsewhere, Friedman has depicted globalization as a free-forall where advanced technologies and trade liberalization are leveling all the competitive advantages once attached to geographic location. No one, he concludes, can depend on their address to guarantee anything like a secure livelihood (Friedman 2005). An alternative view—which insists that location is still all-important—is offered by Richard Florida, the influential academic consultant for regional policymakers, in a series of books, the most recent of which is subtitled “How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life” (2002, 2004, 2008). His claim for the growth potential of talent clusters in creative cities argues the case for place-based development as an anchor for high-wage jobs and a formula for wealth creation. According to Florida’s model, today’s recipe for success in competing for employment and riches depends increasingly on being in the right place and having the right skills. Both models have had a considerable impact on the public mind, and so they are influencing the ways in which people take stock of their own skills, loyalties, and opportunities. Just as significant, they are shaping how policymakers respond to new pressures imposed on their resources at hand. Individuals who are persuaded by Friedman see themselves competing directly with counterparts who may be thousands of miles away. Whoever wins the contest takes all the spoils. Those more partial to Florida ’s model try to imagine how they fit into his contest between regional clusters, where the decisive competitive factor lies in a combination of talent , resources, and local identity. The spoils in Florida’s version are somewhat less tangible, and they are not divvied up in a zero-sum manner, but some locations do emerge as winners just as others fall short. 208 nice Work if You can Get it Though they appear to be categorically opposing views, both are aimed at capturing the attention of elites and their investment resources, each pits some populations against others, and neither is an antidote to the curse of uneven development, which rewards the few and denies the majority . In truth, there is no need to choose between Friedman’s “flat world” and Florida’s “spiky world,” and every reason to reject both if paradigms of development that are more fair and equitable are to be favored. The case studies presented in these pages suggest that policies pursued in the name of both Friedman and Florida have generally led to more sharply uneven development, magnifying inequalities in all locations rather than mitigating them in some. Speculative investors—whether in production operations , skilled services, capital equities, or land valuation—tend to emerge with disproportionate gains, and those fortunate workers who experience upward mobility generally do so at the expense of a downgraded majority . This is the case whether the disadvantaged reside in some proximity (close to the spike) to the favored, or whether they eke out a living on the other side of the globe. But, in response to Friedman and Florida, this book does not propose an alternative, and equally snappy, image—the corrugated world?— as a more accurate depiction of how globalization tends to rearrange and redistribute resources. For one thing, such glib metaphors accept, from the outset, that we should view the world in a fundamentally competitive light. They assume that the playing field is already set up as a game between contestants and all that remains is to figure out how to be among the winners. This model of gamesmanship is the preferred framework for free marketeers, and it is usually far from fair. In practice, the ground rules are heavily weighted toward delivering corporate welfare and investor benefits. In most developing countries, the managers of a typical free trade zone will be offering investors a long list of handouts: tax holidays , free land, discounted overheads, wage controls, substandard labor and environmental regulations, lax inspection regimes, and other policies shaped to guarantee lavish returns on their investments, no matter what. Indeed, the only thing that is free about this kind of trade are the freebies offered to investors. On this field, employees are almost always facing...

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