Meanings
plural creative classes
- A proposed socioeconomic class made up of knowledge workers, intellectuals, and various types of artists.
The modern creative class, beleaguered enough, barraged by two decades of digital technology that has radically cheapened music, television and cinema, is ready for combat, as the successful writers’ and actors’ strikes demonstrated earlier in the year.
2023 December 28, Ross Barkan, “The zeitgeist is changing. A strange, romantic backlash to the tech era looms”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Origin
Coined by American urban studies theorist Richard Florida in The Rise of the Creative Class (2002).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
creative class. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/creative%20class
“creative class.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/creative%20class. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “creative class,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/creative%20class.
Source: creative class on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.