Saskia Sassen - Why are there so many everyday miseries in big cities?

This month on the podcast we were honored to spend some time with the renowned Saskia Sassen, who is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University in New York City. Her research and writings focus on globalization, global cities, states in the world economy, and international human migration. The three key variables that have run through her work are the exploration of inequality, gendering, and digitization.

Dr. Sassen shared with us her approach to her work and how she like to break disciplinary silos and bring disparate conversations together. Our conversation was wide ranging as we explored the connections between health, commuting, and urban inequality – especially the role of unjust outcomes and why our societies accept the extreme conditions brought on by the concentration of wealth. We discussed how the financial sector has used increasingly complex methods to squeeze profits out of the poorest people. In addition, we pondered why owning a car has become less important in popular consciousness (among many other things!!)

If you would like to follow Dr. Sassen, please find her on Twitter @SaskiaSassen. If you want to get into her work check out her book Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy. Her webpage http://www.saskiasassen.com/ also has lots of resources and links to her work.