The series

This term’s series explores social science’s big concepts. It examines the contested meaning and diverse application of some of the theoretical ideas that unify and challenge social scientists. It brings together the bright minds of Oxford, and high profile external speakers, to consider the range of ways in which we can think about ‘power’, ‘space’, ‘identity’, and ‘belonging’.

Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Member, The Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University (www.saskiasassen.com). Recent books are with Mary Kaldor Cities at War (Columbia University Press 2020), the 5th fully updated edition of Cities in a World Economy (Sage 2018), and Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy (Harvard University Press 2014, now out in 18 languages.) She is the recipient of diverse awards, including multiple doctor honoris causa, the Principe de Asturias 2013 Prize in the Social Sciences, she was made a Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of the Sciences of Netherland, and most recently was awarded the Geneva Picciotto Price. Her new research project is “An Ethics of the City.”