Saskia Sassen is professor of sociology at Columbia University, New York,  and at the London School of Economics. Her books include Losing Control? Sovereignty in the Age of Globalization (Columbia University Press, 1996) and The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (Princeton University Press, 2001). Her latest book is Territory, Authority, and Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton University Press, 2006), based on a five-year project on governance and accountability in a global economy.

Recent articles

In the wake of the Wall Street meltdown, the United States government plans to dedicate at least $700 billion to underwriting the country's financial system. The money should instead be used to rebuild the real economy and break the boom-bust cycle, says Saskia Sassen.

It is surprising to see the high price in terms of ethical and economic costs that powerful ‘liberal democracies' seem willing to pay in order to control extremely powerless people who only want a chance to work. Immigrants and refugees have to be understood as a historical vanguard that signals major ‘unsettlements' in both sending and receiving countries.

Between national and global levels, a fresh landscape of territory, authority and rights is being opened. It may look messy, but it is part of a new reality in the making, says Saskia Sassen.

Pakistan's arc of protest leaves its most historic and political city unmoved, finds Saskia Sassen.