Where the Super-Brains Are

By Richard Florida

SolidarityEconomy.net via The Atlantic Monthly

Last Friday, my list of America's Brainiest Cities ran over at The Daily Beast. Boulder topped the list, which comprised a mix of larger knowledge-intensive metros like Washington, D.C., Boston, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Austin, and Seattle, and college towns like Ithaca, Charlottesville, Madison, Iowa City, and Durham, North Carolina, among others.

The map above, prepared by Zara Matheson of the Martin Prosperity Institute, shows the performance of all U.S. metros on our Brainiest Metros Index developed with my colleague Charlotta Mellander. The index is based on three variables:

• The share of adults 25 years of age and older with a PhD, master's, or professional degree (from the U.S. Census American Community Survey).
• Computer scientists and mathematicians as a share of all employment.
• Scientists (physical, biological, social) as a share of total metro employment (both from Bureau of Labor Statistics).

The Index weights all three variables equally and covers 339 U.S. metro regions.

Now let's look quickly at how U.S. metros perform on these three key factors that make up the overall index.

The first chart above maps U.S. metros on the first variable - the share of adults with a PhD, master's, or professional degree. The blue shaded areas show regions that score highly on this variable. Washington, D.C. is the clear leader among larger metros (those with more than one million people). Greater Boston and the San Francisco Bay area also have considerable concentrations. But the highest-scoring metros are all college towns that are home to large research-intensive universities - Ithaca (Cornell), Boulder (University of Colorado), Corvallis (Oregon State), Charlottesville (University of Virginia), State College (Penn State), Iowa State (University of Iowa), Lawrence (University of Kansas), and Gainesville (University of Florida).

The second map shows U.S. metros on the second variable - computer scientists and mathematicians as a share of total metro employment. California's Silicon Valley-San Jose rates highly, along with Durham in North Carolina's Research Triangle, Washington, D.C., Boulder, Boston, Austin, Seattle, and several others.

The third map traces U.S. metros on the third variable - scientists as a share of all metro employment. The high-ranking metros here are almost all significant university towns.

But to what extent is metro "braininess" associated with better rates of economic performance? Human capital is a key driver of economic performance, according to a wide range of economic studies. And the Brainiest Metros Index reflects a small but high-powered subset of human capital. To get at this, we ran a series of correlation analyses and scattergraphs comparing the Brainiest Metro Index to measures of regional economic output, income, and wages; innovation and high-tech industry; housing prices; job and class structures; and even metropolitan happiness and well being. These are preliminary, exploratory analyses that simply point to associations between variables. We don't make any claims here about the direction of causality, and we acknowledge that intervening variables may come into play.

Brainier metros have better economic outcomes, being closely associated with economic output measured as gross regional product per capita (with a correlation of. 556), regional income (.563), and regional wages (.646). Metro braininess also goes along with higher housing prices, whether measured by the Case-Shiller Index (.449 ) or by Census data on housing values (.358).

Brainier metros also have higher levels of innovation, measured as patents (.571), and have higher levels of high-tech industry (.698).

Brainier metros also reflect broader regional occupational and class structures. They are positively associated with the creative class (.77) and negatively associated with the working class (-.53).

And brainier metros tend to have happier populations. The correlation between the Brainiest Metros Index and Gallup's measure of metropolitan happiness and well-being is.566.

This poses significant implications for economic development policy, which I pointed out at The Daily Beast:

Though luring new factories and building new stadiums lend themselves to outsize media attention and ostentatious ribbon-cutting ceremonies, the less glamorous work of building up local knowledge assets and leveraging existing university campuses yields far greater and lasting economic gains. Unlike incentive packages and new stadiums, which, despite their price tags of hundreds of millions of dollars, too often turn out to provide benefits that are scant or fleeting, knowledge assets like research universities can't move; they are rooted in the local economy. These brainy metros not only demonstrate a better approach to stimulating state and local economic development, they are helping to rebuild the US economy as a whole.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/08/where-the-super-brains-are/62232/

Copyright © 2010 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All Rights Reserved.

Brings Renewable Energy

to Northwest Indiana

By Andrea Buffa
Apollo News Service 

July 22, 2010 - Tracy Hall of Munster, Indiana has been an electrician for 30 years. He is among the thousands of construction trades workers hit by the current recession, who have seen unemployment in the trades rise to almost 25 percent nationally. But Hall hasn’t had time to sit around getting depressed about the state of the economy. Instead, he’s spent the time when work has been scarce developing a new expertise. As the only union worker in Indiana who is certified as a solar photovoltaic installer by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, and a LEED Accredited Professional by the U.S. Green Building Council, he has become one of Northwest Indiana’s most knowledgeable renewable energy technicians.

“Tracy has single-handedly become one of the experts in the region on renewable energy—and not just the pros and cons of renewable energy, but the installation specifics and the technical aspects of how you build and install solar systems and wind mills,” said Howard Fink, the town administrator of Merrillville, Indiana, where Hall installed solar panels on the town hall building.

Hall’s story shows the positive impact that one determined individual can have on the adoption of clean energy practices by his workplace and local community. He convinced his labor union, Local 697 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), to offer a journey-level class in solar photovoltaics and then set about obtaining the skills he would need in order to be able to teach the class. Hall attended workshops offered by the Illinois Solar Energy Association, studied LEED green building standards at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago, participated in online courses offered by Solar Energy International and graduated from solar installation classes at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association. He also went to an IBEW training-the-trainer course on photovoltaics so that he would be prepared not only to do installations but also to teach about them.

“We’ve got to start making changes if we want our children to have a future,” Hall said. “It’s become a passion for me. I just want to leave this world knowing that I did something that was meaningful.”

After attending so many courses and workshops, Hall had the training and the passion, but he still lacked one thing: hands-on practice installing a solar PV system. When he found out about an Indiana Office of Energy Development (OED) grant program designed to support the purchase and installation of alternative energy systems, he decided to apply. He approached the town administrator of Merrillville about a project that would begin with Hall teaching a solar PV installation class to journey-level electricians and apprentices through his labor union and culminate with the trainees installing solar panels on the roof of the Merrillville town hall. The trainees would donate their work, and, if approved, the grant would help the city purchase the solar PV system.

“We wanted to do the project as a training opportunity with the local unions so the building trades had the opportunity to get accustomed to installing these systems,” said Howard Fink, Merrillville’s town administrator. “We also did it as an educational tool for residents to learn about the environmental benefits of renewable energy.”

As soon as Hall and Fink got word that their project had been approved for a $23,500 Alternative Power and Energy Grant, Hall began training 12 of his union members in solar photovoltaics using the IBEW’s national curriculum. In March 2009, the trainees installed a small five-kilowatt solar PV system on the Merrillville town hall building. It was the first commercial photovoltaic installation in Lake County.

Since then, Hall has continued to be a tireless advocate for renewable energy in Northwest Indiana and throughout the state. He applied for and received another OED grant, this one for $73,500, to install solar panels on the roof of Local 697’s new union hall, which they hope will achieve LEED gold certification. Hall also trained electricians at IBEW Local 531, whose hands on experience came from installing solar panels on a parochial school in Porter County.

Hall says he prefers to work within labor unions, because “it’s important that people earn a living wage and have health benefits and retirement benefits. When you get work outside of the local union, you don’t have those benefits in the construction industry.”

Despite Hall’s successes, his effort to promote renewable energy has not been without its challenges. Demand is slow for renewable energy systems in Indiana, which means that Hall hasn’t been able to find full-time work in his new area of expertise. In part, this is because Indiana has few policies to spur local demand for renewable energy. According to Laura Arnold of the Indiana Renewable Energy Association, several attempts to pass a state-level renewable energy standard have failed. Another challenge, Arnold said, is the economy. “There is a strong interest in renewable energy in our state, just like there is in most other states, but with people’s uncertainty about the economy, they are just not making a lot of discretionary purchases.”

Hall is hoping that if Indiana state legislators won’t act to create a renewable energy market in the state, Congress will. The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, but the Senate has yet to pass a similar bill. “A federal renewable energy standard would be very helpful,” Hall said. “And if we could put a cap [and price] on carbon, that would help fund these kinds of projects.”

Regardless of what happens at the federal level, Fink believes renewable energy use will increase in Indiana. “The public attitude toward renewable energy is strong … As time goes on and costs go down and as more people are certified in installing the systems, you’re going to see them installed in homes and businesses in our region and around the country,” Fink said.

In the meantime, Hall plans to keep pursuing his passion for clean energy. “My family respects me for what I’m doing,” he said. “When I did the Merrillville project, when I came home that day, my wife was just glowing. To me, that was really worth putting a lot of effort into this work.”

Photo: MCC's worker-owned university

Education, Training

and Information: Looking

Deeper at Mondragon

By John McNamara

Feb. 8, 2010

“It is said that co-operation is an economic movement that utilizes educational activities, but it can also be said that co-operation is an educational movement that utilizes economic activities.“–Don José María Arizmendiarreta, founder of the Mondragon Cooperatives.

Here's a fun exercise, well maybe interesting more than “fun”, at co-operative gathering centers around the principles. Ask the co-operators present, “Which is the most important principle.” If there are more than seven people in the room, you will likely get about eight different answers.

People often focus on the user principles and democracy as being the principles that separate co-operatives from other businesses. Of course, in my opinion, the best answer is that they are all equally important and feed into each other. Case in point: how strong can democracy be if the electorate isn’t educated or informed?

Education, training and information play a vital role in co-operatives. It requires transparency. It requires honesty and openness. These three qualities feed the democratic nature of the co-operative as well as informs the abilities of the members to maintain economic control. They help the co-operative movement grow. The Statement on Identity describes this principle as follows: “Co-operatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their co-operatives. They inform the general public – particularly young people and opinion leaders – about the nature and benefits of co-operation.”

In the background paper, Ian MacPherson focused on the role of educating the youth:

“The Fifth Principle refers to the long-standing and vitally important commitment to education. In many ways it is similar to the 1966 version except that it specifically mentions the need for co-operatives to inform young people and opinion leaders about ‘the nature and benefits of co-operation’. The reason for making this addition was a perception that the Movement was limiting its future by ignoring youth and failing to explain well enough the values and purposes of the Movement to such people as politicians, public servants, educators, and commentators; the result has been a decline in the public understanding of the organised movement.”

I have to tell you that attending conferences, one can really see what Dr. MacPherson was talking about. In 2008, I was a panelist for the Co-operative Issues Forum and then a week later I went to New Orleans for the US Federation’s Democracy at Work Conference. The first event was a cross-sector (which in Wisconsin means Ag Co-ops and everybody else), the second was mainly for the worker co-operatives. With the exception of a handful of people (mostly from my co-op), I was one of the youngest people in the room for the Wisconsin conference.  Looking out over the audience, it was a sea of gray and graying heads! In NOLA, I was one of the oldest.

Fortunately for me, my age in the worker co-op movement is matched by 21 years of experience. That isn’t always the case. Often older workers coming into a worker co-op are recovering wage slaves and have to unlearn all of the bad habits from the other economy. We need to have strong methods to re-orientate new (older) workers as well as to orientate workers new to the workforce. Hiring from the outside in a worker co-op means hiring someone without the culture of co-operation in the workplace. It means bringing in bad habits and misdirected fears from other work places. These issues have to be dealt with, but can be even more dramatic if the person is being hired into a position of power and authority. This is just one unique way in which ETI plays out in worker co-operatives.

As the good people of Mondragon point out: “Co-operation emerges therefore as a defense of its own identity, determined that the social model which arises from its principles shall not be erased by the insensitive penetration of other forms of social behaviour in which profit is the central motive.” All worker in a worker co-operative need to learn their industry, the history of the co-operative movement, and the means to answer their questions.

Another issue for worker co-ops comes from our need to hire internally and manage our own company. A consumer or ag co-op can hire from outside the co-operative world and still get an effective manager for their industry (see The Wedge in Minneapolis). This is much harder to do in a worker co-operative and might even be impossible. If we are going to manage ourselves, we need to educate ourselves on how to do it properly. At this point, there is only one viable means of receiving a formal education in co-operative management through St. Mary’s University. Too often, hiring a consultant means training the consultant in the nature of worker co-operatives. Worker co-ops need to develop education and training programs that unique for the industry and co-operative structure. Fortunately, the US Federation of Worker Co-operatives, through the Democracy at Work Institute will be creating a peer advisory system. This low-cost system will allow worker co-operative to gain from the experience of other worker co-operators. It is an exciting project and will begin this year. Check out the US Federation’s web site for more information.

I haven’t spoken a lot about information, but transparency should be the watchword in a worker co-operative. The members must have full access to the co-operative to make good decisions. Without it, rumor mills run wild and suspicions mount. In other sectors, there might be a “need to know” level of secrecy. I still disagree with that concept. I think that any member of any co-operative should have access to any information about the co-operative that they feel is important for their ability to understand how the co-op operates. Just Coffee in Madison takes this concept to the highest level that I have seen. I have written about this before, but Just Coffee has eschewed “fair trade” for “transparent trade”. They post their contracts with the farmers on their web site and dare their competitors to meet their price. Maybe all worker co-ops should do that.

While the principles of co-operatives work together, the role of Education, Information and Training provides a means for members to understand and to grow. Members may come into the co-op with little more than a “you’re not the boss of me” attitude. Through education and access to information, they can move along the maturity curve to understand the unique society that they have joined and how that society interacts with similar societies in their city, state, region, nation and even across the world. A strong commitment to this principle keeps the co-operative spirit strong and vital. A well trained, informed and educated workforce may be the best marketing decision for any co-operative. For worker co-operatives, these qualities build solidarity and a commitment to the success of the co-operative and its members.

There may not be a “most important” principle, but Education, Training and Information certainly provides an undercurrent vital to expressing the others.

Next: Co-operation Among Co-operatives