Economics of Talent

Roberta Comunian is a Reader in Creative Economy at the Department for Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King's College London (UK).   She is interested in cultural policy, cultural and creative work and creative higher education.  She has published extensively on the role of creative and cultural industries in local development. She is also internationally recognised for her work on creative graduates developed in collaboration with Dr Jewell and Dr Faggian. She has previously led and coordinated two AHRC international research networks, one on the role of ‘Higher Education in the Creative Economy’ 2012-2014) and one on ‘Understanding and supporting creative economies in Africa’ (2017-2020). She is currently involved in the H2020 EU funded project DISCE: Developing inclusive and sustainable creative economies. Lauren England is a Baxter Fellow in Creative Economies at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee (UK). She is interested in creative enterprise and education with a focus on craft and sustainable development in both global North and global South contexts. For her PhD at King’s College London she worked with Crafts Council UK to investigate professional development in craft higher education and early-career entrepreneurship. Lauren has published research on craft skills evolution in post-industrial regions, craft entrepreneurship and precarious work in the creative economy. Recent projects she was involved in include exploring the development of creative economies and the work of fashion designers in Africa. Alessandra Faggian is a Professor of Applied Economics, Director of Social Sciences and Vice Provost for Research at the Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila, Italy. She is past President of the North American Regional Science Council (NARSC), current co-editor of Journal of Regional Science and previous editor of Papers in Regional Science. Dr Faggian’s research interests lie in the field of regional economics. Her publications cover a wide range of topics including migration, human capital, labour markets, creativity and local innovation and growth. She has co-authored over 90 academic publications. Alessandra is the 2007 recipient of the Moss Madden Memorial Medal by the Regional Science Association International: Irish and British section (RSAIBIS), the 2015 recipient of the Geoffrey Hewings Award by the North American Regional Council (NARSC) and the 2020 recipient of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA) Prize.  Charlotta Mellander is a Professor of Economics at Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University. Her research is focused on the location patterns of creative individuals and firms, as well as the inter-relationship between these actors, and how this in the end shapes regional development. Her publication list includes very diverse set of topics, from creative industries, happiness, community satisfaction, light-emission based estimations of gross regional product globally, to alternative ways of measuring skills. Charlotta Mellander has been a publicly active researcher, with more than 500 invited, external speeches, both nationally and internationally, including organizations such as the EU and the UN, as well as companies such as IBM. She held a visiting faculty position at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, 2009-2016, where she worked together with Professor Richard Florida, the scholar behind the creative class theories.

• Introduction.- Defining talent: Between human capital and the creative economy.- Positioning Talent: history, cities and the growing importance of talent.- Challenging talent: Cities and the cycle of rising disparities.- Raising talent: higher education and uneven career outcomes.- Exposing talent: Precarity and moments of crisis.- Empowering talent: Campaigning and activism for work and cities.- Conclusions