Abstract n.a.

• Saskia Sassen (born in The Hague, in The Netherlands) is an American sociologist and economist widely considered the leading authority on globalization and international human migration and coined the term”global Sassen spent a year each at the Universite de Poitiers, France, the University degli Studi di Roma, and the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, studying philosophy and political science. From 1969, Sassen studied sociology and economics at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, where she obtained M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in 1971 and 1974, respectively. In addition, she obtained a French master’s degree in philosophy in Poitiers in 1974. She was also a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Currently, Sassen is the Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, and Centennial Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. Her new book, Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages is published by Princeton University Press. She has just completed a five-year project on sustainable human settlement for UNESCO, for which she set up a network of researchers and activists in over 30 countries; the project is published as one of the volumes of the Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems by Oxford, UK: EOLSS Publishers. Her most recent books are the edited Global Networks, Linked Cities, published in New York and London by Routledge and the co-edited Digital Formations: New Architectures for Global Order published by Princeton University Press. The Global City came out in a new fully updated edition in 2001. Her books are translated into sixteen languages. She serves on several editorial boards and is an advisor to several international bodies. She is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Cities, and Chair of the Information Technology and International Cooperation Committee of the Social Science Research Council (USA). Her comments have appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, International Herald Tribune, Vanguardia, Clarin, and Financial Times, among others.