ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I will attempt to present a more general psychodynamic portrait of the New Cosmopolitans, some of whom we have met in the previous two chapters. The New Cosmopolitans are a very influential elite today. They belong to what sociologists and economists call the super-creative core of the knowledge economies that have evolved over the last few decades (Florida 2002). Among their number are researchers in the natural, biological and social sciences; the content producers of the media industries and the arts; the upper echelons of research and development in high-tech, bio-tech and engineering industries; and the non-technical domain of the financial sector (Sassen 2000, Florida 2002). The essence of their work is to apply their intelligence to problem-solving and new developments. They are cosmopolitan because the networks that define and sustain their professional disciplines function independently of geography, and they have found places in all of the developed economies.
