The origins of the ‘creative class’:provincial urban society, scientific culture and socio-political marginalityin Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries1

Abstract

Recent historiography has revealed the importance of scientificculture in British society during the eighteenth and nineteenthcenturies, with scientific knowledge shown to have been central ina wide range of sites and contexts, from botanical gardens to mechanics’ institutes.The article draws upon the insights of historians of science, urbanhistorians and others to argue that the concept of the English ‘urbanrenaissance’, the Habermasean model of the public sphere, variousaspects of post-structural, post-modern and feminist theory, andattention to ‘the space’ and geography can allbe used to enhance the understanding of this culture. Given thatscientific culture has often been associated with social groupsthat have sometimes been described as ‘marginal’,the article explores the historiography of various aspects of whatit defines as the ‘marginal model’ of culturalexpression. Aspects of its various manifestations are explored with specialreference to groups often perceived as ‘alternative’ or ‘peripheral’ to ‘dominant’ or majorityculture, such as women, dissenters, gays or immigrants, includingrecent work in the United States concerning the activities of the ‘creativeclass’. It is contended that this can illuminate our understandingof British scientific culture, for instance through its emphasison urban and regional differentiation and on the irrational aspectsof intellectual endeavour. The study assesses how successfully modelsof social marginality account for the varied character and geographyof this culture, using case-studies of scientific societies in differenttypes of English town and a review of Scottish Enlightenment science.