She is considered one of the "Greats" (perhaps the greatest) of living sociology. An American originally from the Netherlands, Saskia Sassen , born in 1947, has lived and studied all over the world. From Buenos Aires, where she grew up and attended the Universidad Nacional, to France, at the University of Poitiers, to Harvard and Notre-Dame (in Indiana), where she specialized with a master's degree, a doctorate, and a post-doctoral fellowship, also passing through Italy, at Sapienza University in Rome. She has studied and been interested in globalization , transnational economic and political processes, with timely analyses also on migration, inequalities , new technologies , and gender studies , becoming one of the most influential and cited authors in contemporary sociology. Translated into more than 20 languages, she now teaches at Columbia University in New York and is the spouse of another great American sociologist, Richard Sennett . Saskia Sassen is the creator of the term “ global cities ”, a term now in common use that designates the new connotation that large metropolises take on in the panorama of globalization.
Global cities
Economic globalization has profoundly altered the social, economic, and political fabric of nation-states, vast transnational areas, and, last but not least, cities. By now, the numerous world metropolises They have developed within transnational markets and now have more in common with each other than with their respective regional or national contexts. Already in 1991, Sassen, with his analyses, showed us that cities like Tokyo, London e New York They represent key intersections of global trade. They also present a further characteristic: they are more interdependent, both in economic and financial terms and in terms of communication and transport, among themselves than with their respective states. Their relationships thus develop within what he defines as "strategic transnational market networks”, which cross the states themselves and which assume a broader scale, of a global order, which goes beyond even the regulatory powers of nation-states, and which represent a tangible sign of the crisis of the latter. To these cities, with the growth of the global economy, others are being added such as Dubai, Berlin e Hong KongThe economy's fate therefore hinges on the governance of these "strategic hubs," true collective players competing with each other to attract capital, people, and large businesses. The Olympics, Expos, festivals, and hosting major international organizations are all opportunities for investment and represent crucial elements in this race for the best positioning in the global economic market.
Global inequalities
As well as new possibilities, however, also new social injustices are located in these spaces, a central theme in his most recent “Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy”. For the author “Inequality is inevitable in complex and highly differentiated systems but […] today inequality is extreme. Unacceptable. We no longer speak of social exclusion but of expulsionThe first can be scaled down, improved, even eliminated, while the second crosses the systems“We are witnessing the impoverishment of the middle class in rich countries, the eviction of millions of small farmers in poor countries, industrial practices destructive to the biosphere, the growing population living in ghettos and slums, as well as "out-of-market" entrepreneurs or families left homeless by foreclosure: "the economy expels everything that is not productive – says Sassen – while the indicators remain“. If in the past inclusive policies aimed at reducing systemic tendencies towards inequality, today through the prevailing neoliberalism Economic space is shrinking. Less investment is being made in infrastructure for the benefit of all, thus increasing the concentration of power and wealth at the top. Wealth for companies but poverty for the population; economic indicators remain favorable, but they are actually misleading and distorted. The author argues that economies need to respond to distributive logics: the more people and local communities are involved, the more economies benefit and generate benefits for the entire community.
Migration analysis
Among the themes that could not be missing in Sassen there is also that of migration which he speaks about with a very clear analysis already in 1999 in "Migrants, settlers, refugees”. With a quantitative approach, the sociologist – studying migratory movements from the end of the eighteenth century – discovers how the branched flow of emigrants, an essential component in the very construction of Europe, is never random or attributable to individual choices, but is always precisely structured, circumscribed and controllable, as well as functional to political and economic strategies. Through a large amount of data, information and surveys, it argues that the migrant is theindicator of a change occurred in the area from which they come. This refers to an intensification of negative conditions leading to massive habitat loss in the area from which they emigrate, which may refer to climate change (desertification, rising water levels, soil drying, increasing soil poisoning), massive land acquisitions by governments, wars, or other factors.They are not people who leave their country and their home for a better life, they are people who live in rural environments but do not have a home, they have no hope, because they are victims of the expropriation of their land and other primary resources such as water due to economic development.“International institutions must learn to deal with these phenomena as existing policies are not suitable: we need to develop new ones global intervention networks that they know how to recognize and combat the causes from time to time in various contexts, preventing them and managing them as social, political and economic phenomena and no longer as "invasions".
Valerio Adolini
