Saskia Sassen

#2

At the moment, half of the world's population lives in cities. Within two decades, this figure will increase to 60 per cent. Extreme wealth and extreme poverty occur alongside each other, but cities remain magnets that attract huge masses of people. For many, cities offer the opportunity for work and income, education and better facilities. Using eight different themes, this book offers an intriguing picture of these developments and of our global future. Cities in transition' investigates the recent urban and political-economic developments in North America, South America, Europe, South Africa and China. It features contributions by 30 experts in the field, including Saskia Sassen, Fulong Wu, M. Christine Boyer, Vittorio Lampugnani, Eric Swyngedouw, Marc Angélil, Joan Busquets, David Grahame Shane, George Baird and many others. The book closes with the urban developments in China, with the urgency of education and research formulated by a dozen deans of influential Chinese universities.

#3

"The Third Edition of Cities in a World Economy shows how certain characteristics of our turn-of-the-millennium flows of money, information, and people have led to the emergence of a new social formation: global cities. These developments give new meaning to such fixtures of urban sociology as the centrality of place and the importance of geography in our social world. Key Features: Offers a multidisciplinary perspective: This book features a cross-disciplinary approach to Urban Sociology using global examples. With both depth and clarity, this book examines the impact of global processes on the social structure of cities helping students increase their world awareness. In addition, the book strikes the perfect balance between maintaining academic rigor and employing new and innovative concepts. Includes a new chapter: The new chapter on Global Cities and Global Survival Circuits discusses the highly gendered and unequal nature of the global city and how it forces the underprivileged to live a dangerous and unpredictable life on global survival circuits. Incorporates the most recent data: This new edition updates nearly every piece of data with the most recent facts and figures available. In addition, this book introduces new concepts for understanding contemporary urban sociology. Intended Audience: This is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Urban Sociology. It can also be used in courses such as Urban Studies, World Cities, Regional Studies, Urban Development and Planning, and Regional Development in the departments of Sociology, Urban Studies, and Geography"