Big Cities: Joel Kotkin and Richard Florida Debate on Munk Debates

Does the COVID-19 pandemic spell the end of the big city boom?

Listen to the debate at Munk Debates.

Joel Kotkin has recently published The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class. In this book Kotkin argues that tech oligarchs are wiping out the middle class and turning some cities into luxury enclaves. During the debate Joel Kotkin also refers to his book The City: A Global History.

Richard Florida is renowned for his best-selling book The Rise of the Creative Class in which he describes the new social class of creative workers and the vital role they play in the economy and in transforming cities into vibrant places to live. In The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class-and What We Can Do About It Richard Florida looks at the dark side of the creative economy.

During the debate both Richard and Joel describe how COVID-19 has exposed racial and class divisions within cities.