Saskia Sassen: City Is an Extraordinary Animal | reSITE

Saskia Sassen takes the conference focus "Cities in Migration" and discusses her migrant experience and how it relates to design and use of city space. "Why does migration begin? What does it take for people to go where there is no bridge, they have to build the bridge?" She answers that people will migrate for a better life, to escape war, or to escape economic ruins. The ability of someone to restart their life in a new city is a direct result of how they are perceived by others. She believes that corporations privatizing urban areas takes away from the value of an urban space. Throughout her lecture, she emphasizes the importance of people over corporations, and making the city landscape work for its people and not its economy.

Saskia Sassen is a professor of sociology at Columbia University in New York. At reSITE 2016: Cities in Migration, she brings her experiences to the table to talk about changes in cities and how migration is so deeply connected to city life. She was born in the Netherlands and grew up in Argentina, Italy, France, and now lives in the United States. Throughout her life, she has written eight books and edited three more. Her work focuses on cities, immigration, and the global economy, and has been elected to the Royal Academy of the Sciences of the Netherlands as well as appointed by the French government as a Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et Lettres.

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