ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an alternative perspective on the creative class. From a theoretical perspective, it is about the tools and methods needed to follow the local unfolding of a creative class. Such approaches illuminate the disruption of old social patterns and the co-constructing processes that unfold when residents reorganize their environments to meet new challenges and opportunities. Alfred Marshall work describes the phenomenon as the bottom-up crafting of relatively small and prosperous communities that include small cities, towns, and industrial suburbs. As resident bohemians and rebels in an otherwise blue-collar community, these younger selves of the now respectable elders of Easthampton's arts community, seeded the local cultural economy. By 1998, one year after East works first opened its doors, the semi-annual Open Studios sale at One Cottage Street was in its 11th consecutive year, and so many of the residents at East works saw this event at One Cottage Street as an excellent opportunity to promote their work.
