Th 07 Jan 10
Lecture Saskia Sassen
The closing lecture of the American sociologist and economist Saskia Sassen of coming Thursday, 7 January is fully booked.
Sassen will be giving the lecture "A New Immigration Phase" as part of the Open City Event Program. Sassen is noted for her research on globalisation, migration, global cities and the impact of new network technologies on our urban societies within a global perspective. Tim Rieniets (co-curator of the 4th IABR) will open the evening with a brief introduction to the theme and will moderate the debate and Q&A with the audience after the lecture.
Migration and the Open City
Cities have always been junctions of human traffic, a departure point or final destination for migrants and other travellers who have settled at places far from their roots. The difference between the past and present is the global scale on which today’s mass migration occurs and the far-reaching social, economic, cultural and political impact that follows in its wake. Whether it concerns migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, tourists or business travellers, both the speed with which people travel and the distances they cover are increasing exponentially. The contemporary city can no longer be considered a homogenous cultural entity with fixed territorial boundaries. Rather, the city must be seen as a collection of intersections where various social, cultural or economic trajectories dissect.
Against this backdrop, it is becoming increasingly clear that the modern city with all its diversity is an inexhaustible source of urbanisation. Cities are places where people learn to live with diversity, where ‘differences’ can be harnessed to bring about urban progress. However, this constantly growing diversity frequently leads to the alienation of the ‘other’ and to intolerance. Migration, in the broadest sense of the word, with all the diversity and friction it entails, is the result of the intensive human traffic prevalent today and, with this, is the ultimate challenge facing the Open City.
Saskia Sassen
Sociologist and Economist Saskia Sassen (VS) is the Lynd Professor of Sociology and Member of The Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University, New York . Sassen is renowned for her research on globalization, migration and the global cities. She is the author of numerous books and articles, amongst which The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (Princeton Press 1991) which appeared in a fully updated version in 2001; Digital Formations: IT and New Architectures in the Global Realm (Princeton Press, 2005); Deciphering the Global: Its Scales, Spaces and Subjects (Routlegde, 2007) and the revised Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, May 2008).
For the publication of the 4th International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam, entitled Open City: Designing Coexistence, Sassen wrote the essay Open City: Beyond Assymetric War and Environmental Violence, which explores how different forms of conflicts are played out in our cities of today, and how new types of urban design and organisation can generate a completely new Open City.
The lecture is part of the Open City Event Program of the 4th International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam. Reservation is required for this lecture, which will be given in English.
where & When
Location: Auditorium, NAI
Date : Thursday January 7
Time: 20:00 hrs, doors open 19.15
Price: €5, €3, Passe partout
