cover image The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World

The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World

Paul H. Ray. Harmony, $25 (384pp) ISBN 978-0-609-60467-0

In an attempt to reconceptualize shifting American demographics that's similar to David Brook's Bobos in Paradise (Forecasts, Mar. 13), Ray and Anderson posit that hidden within America are 50 million people, 26% of the population, who are what they call ""cultural creatives."" Based on 12 years of survey research, 100 focus groups and dozens of interviews, their study presents a complex portrait of these citizens. According to the authors, cultural creatives share a series of attitudes and concerns: ""they like to get a synoptic view [and] see all the parts spread out side by side and trace the interconnections""; they have strong concerns about the well-being of families; they have a well-developed social consciousness and a ""guarded optimism for the future""; they are disenchanted with ""owning more stuff... materialism... status display and the glaring social inequities of race"" and are critical of almost every big institution of modern society, including corporations and government. This cultural group--drawn from all classes, races, education and income levels and social backgrounds--has emerged only during the past 50 years and, according to the authors, forms a coherent subculture, only ""missing a self-awareness as a whole people."" Ray and Anderson argue that cultural creatives hold the potential for radically reshaping the values and material realities, the ""deep structure,"" of American life, and so they aim to make this group cognizant of their shared values, to bring about substantive changes. More successful than Brooks in grappling with issues of gender, ethnicity, race and class, Ray and Anderson offer unusual insights that, while broad and sweeping, shed new light on American culture and politics. (Sept.)