global cities and survival circuits sassen

The book clearly incorporates this dimension when it argues that next to the sharp concentration of wealth and widening inequalities, the formation of global cities networks and circuits can be regarded as key new patterns. In the past, Sassen’s work was sometimes criticised for overlooking the articulations and flows that connect global cities. In this third edition, the data is thoroughly updated up to 2005, while new concepts are also added. The latest version of the book is now divided in eight chapters of around 20 pages, each packed with a wealth of illustrations and tables.

The original version of this textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in urban studies was published in 1994, followed by a second edition in 2000.

Cities in a World Economy is a good illustration of this evolution. Since the publication of her internationally acclaimed book, the Global City (Princeton University Press, 1991), Saskia Sassen has pursued an increasingly sophisticated research agenda, deepening and refining her vision of globalisation’s impact on the economic and social structure of contemporary cities.

Reviewed by Corinne Nativel, University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France.

Thousand Oaks : Pine Forge Press (2006), 269 pages.

Global cities and survival circuits sassen