Abstract

Richard Florida focuses on the selected determinants affecting the choice of residence by the creative class at the regional level. He defines these determinants with the concept “quality of place”. The question arises of whether this approach can be transferred to a subregional level. In the empirical research at the subregional level, variables are added to “quality of place” and the creative class is differentiated into sectors.
In this article, Florida’s assessment is applied to the subregional level, as is usual for assessments used to explain the choice of residence location. This allows an investigation of which location factors have a deciding influence on the residence location choices of the creative
class in the Zurich agglomeration and what differences, if any, can be found between the various branches.
An empirical analysis of the data for the agglomeration of Zurich in 2000 supports the transferability of Florida’s approach to the subregional level. However, it is evident that the differentiation of the creative class and the addition of other determinants to “quality of place” are essential.