Saskia Sassen
Department of Sociology and
Committee on Global Thought
Columbia University
Email: sjs2@columbia.edu
Telephone: 212.854.0790
Office: 713 Knox Hall
606 W 122nd St
Office hours: Fri 1-2 and by appointment
Fall 2010 Sociology G6320
IMMIGRATION, CITIES, STATES:
DECIPHERING THE GLOBAL
Section 001 Call Number: 20998 Points: 3
Day/Time: F 11:00A-12:50P Mon. 4:10-6pm
Location: KNOX HALL 101
606 W 122nd St
IMMIGRATION, CITIES, STATES: DECIPHERING THE GLOBAL
(Suitable for students in sociology, anthropology, political science, geography, the Committee on Global
Thought, and SIPA)
LIMITED TO 15 STUDENTS. Approval by instructor required. Interested students should communicate
with Professor Sassen via email.
The three main substantive subjects on which this course focuses are powerful registers of larger
both macro and micro-transformations. Each of these subjects generates theoretical and
methodological challenges and can, through novel types of research questions, address those
challenges. The course will examine how those macro- and micro-transformations engage key
aspects of major institutions. Immigration, cities and states are umbrella categories, each
containing multiple and diverse institutions and dynamics.
The course is designed so as to allow students considerable leeway in what they want to focus on
and write about. The aim is to a) allow those students who already have a subject to deepen their
knowledge of that subject, and b) allow those students who do not, to become familiar with some
of the key theoretical and methodological components of the themes covered by the course. The
first half focuses on readings that are either classics or represent very current research and
include discussions of how to do research on some of these slippery subjects. The second half of
the course will run more like an independent study, except that we will meet in class.
To that end, I have kept the last 3 weeks of this syllabus open so as to incorporate the interests of
students.
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REQUIRED READINGS
The list of readings includes some classic texts by authors who may not have the question of the
global in mind, but whose work might nonetheless offer conceptual instruments for
understanding how the global alters long-term institutions and dynamics captured by the
concepts of the city, the state, immigration. Because a good part of this course represents a
scholarly field in formation, I will also hand out lists of additional suggested readings during the
course: depending on a student’s interests, I will recommend particular items from these and
other readings. Students should check with me.
Most of the readings will be articles and book chapters; these will be available online on
Courseworks (www.courseworks.columbia.edu).
The following book will be read more or less in its entirety:
o Saskia Sassen, A Sociology of Globalization (W. W. Norton 2007).
I have also added the following as a suggested book:
o Saskia Sassen (ed.), Deciphering the Global: It’s Scales, Spaces and Subjects
(Routledge: 2007). (This book in an edited collection of 16 chapters, each based on a
doctoral dissertation; they cover a very broad range of subjects, and show us how they
went about constructing their object of study and doing their research)
These books will be available at Book Culture (formerly Labyrinth Bookstore) located at 536
West 112th Street, New York, NY 10025
REQUIREMENTS:
You are asked to come to class well prepared to discuss the required readings for that session.
Written requirements:
1. Students will be asked to write three short essays, (length of each: 4 pages, double spaced)
responding to three specific questions: this will be a take-home assignment to be distributed on
Friday, October 21 and due on Friday October 28. I will give you the subjects based on the
required readings. The aim is to make you think analytically about the subject, not simply to
summarize the readings. You will get detailed instructions.
2. A final paper is due at the end of term (mid-December). This can be work based on the
student’s current research, dissertation research, or research proposal. Those who prefer may
choose to do a second set of three essays (same time format as at mid-term) instead of the final
paper. My rule is whatever works best for the student’s larger work project: as long as the subject
fits in the course. Students are welcome to use the course to work on their research proposals or
on a scholarly paper that might be submitted for publication if the subject fits in the course.
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I. INTRODUCTION:
September 9

Review of the three main domains the course will focus on in order to specify key
features of globalization: a) immigration, b) cities, and c) the state. A fourth subject,
digitization, will be discussed throughout the course.

Introduction of some of the theoretical and methodological issues we confront when
studying cities, immigration, and the state in the context of globalization. I will discuss
several of the issues and readings of the next 4 sections of the syllabus.
Readings:

Ch. 1, "Introduction" in A Sociology of Globalization
II. MIGRATION PROCESSES AND EMERGENT CONCEPTIONS OF CITIZENSHIP:
September 16 & 23
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The production of migrations:
o conditions that activate poverty/unemployment as push factors
o empirical regularities
The production of a racialized subject.
The politics of membership.
The two foundational subjects for political membership: citizenship and alienage
States and undocumented immigrants
Assembling new forms of citizenship
Readings:
Ong, Aihwa, Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality (Duke Univ. Press:
1999)
o Introduction: “Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality”
o Ch. 1: “The Geopolitics of Cultural Knowledge”
Natalia Ribas-Mateos, (2004) "How Can we Understand Immigration in Southern Europe?"
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30(6): 1045-1063
A Sociology of Globalization Ch. 5, “The Making of Migrations”
Suggested Additional Readings:
 Ong, Aihwa et al. "Cultural Citizenship as Subject-Making: Immigrants Negotiate Racial
and Cultural Boundaries in the United States [and Comments and Reply]" Current
Anthropology 37(5), Dec. 1996: pp.737-762.
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 From Deciphering the Global:
o Kamal Sadiq, “Illegal Immigrants as Citizens in Malaysia” (Ch. 15)
o Anne Bartlett, “The City and the Self: The Emergence of New Political Subjects
in London” (Ch.11)
o Heather Hindman, “Outsourcing Difference: Expatriate Training and the
Disciplining of Culture” (Ch. 8)
 S. Sassen, “Towards postnational and denationalized citizenship” in Handbook of
Citizenship Studies, eds. Engin F. Isin and Bryan S. Turner. (New York: Sage. 2003).
 Various online items, including:
o SSRC website: “Border Battles: The U.S. Immigration Debates, at
http://borderbattles.ssrc.org
o Specialized continuously updated websites, in particular, “International Migration
Network” and “Migrant Remittances.”
III. STRATEGIC SPACES IN THE ORGANIZATION OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
September 30 and October 7
Please note: Oct 7th 1-5 pm Davis Auditorium, Conference on the post-January 2011
Transitions in North Africa and the Middle East. I urge you to attend; we can all go right after
class.
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Spatial and organizational features of the global economy
The impact of digitization and telecommunications generally on the spatial organization
of economic activities
Two separate bodies of scholarship and scholarly discourse: economic globalization and
urbanism
Conceptual and methodological strategies for elaborating their articulation
Global cities as sites for the production of strategic inputs needed in the management,
coordination, and servicing of the global operations of firms and markets.
Readings:

Weber, Max. The City (The Free Press: 1958 [1921])
o Chapter 1: “The Nature of the City”

Iris Marion Young “City life and difference”

Peter Marcuse and Ronald van Kempen, "A New Spatial Order in Cities?" American
Behavioral Scientist, 1997, vol.41, no.3 (pp.285-298)

Robert Park et al. The City (University of Chicago Press 1925):
o Chapter 9: “Mind of a Hobo”
o Chapter 6: “Community Organization and the Romantic Temper”
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Henri Lefevre (1991) The Production of Space (Malden, MA: Anthropos)
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o Ch. 1 "Plan of the Present Work" (pp. 1-67)

Ash Amin & Nigel Thrift (2007) "Cultural-economy and cities" Progress in Human
Geography 31(2): 143-161.
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Arjun Appadurai (1996) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization,
Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
o Ch. 2 - "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy" (pp.27-47)
Suggested additional readings:

S. Sassen, "The City: It's Return as a Lens for Social Theory", City, Culture and Society,
forthcoming.
 From Deciphering the Global:
o Gracia Liu Farrer, “Producing Global Economies from Below: Chinese Immigrant
Transnational Entrepreneurship in Japan” (Ch. 9)
o Simone Buechler, “Deciphering the Local in a Global Neoliberal Age: Three
Favelas in Sao Paulo, Brazil” (Ch.5)
o Rachel Harvey, “The Sub-national Constitution of Global Financial Markets”
(Ch. 10)
IV. THE STATE AND THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF POWER:
October 14
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The de-centering of sovereign power
The unbundling of national territory
Political and economic territoriality in a global and digital age
Readings:
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Ch. 3, "The State Confronts the Global Economy and Digital Networks," in A Sociology
of Globalization
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David Harvey (2006) Spaces of Global Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Uneven
Geographical Development (New York: Verso)
o Ch. 3 - "Space as a Key Word" (pp. 119-148)
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Ong, Aihwa: Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality (Duke Univ.
Press: 1999) - Part IV: Global Futures:
o Chapter 7: “Saying No to the West: Liberal Reasoning in Asia”
o Chapter 8: “Zones of New Sovereignty”
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Agnew, J. (1994) “The Territorial Trap: the geographical assumptions of international
relations theory.” Review of International Political Economy, 1(1): 53-80.
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Suggested additional readings:

From Deciphering the Global:
o Jennifer L. Johnson, “Deregulating Markets, Regulating Crime: Extralegal
Policing and the Penal State in Mexico” (Ch.13)
o Giselle Datz, “Global-National Interactions and Sovereign Debt Restructuring
Outcomes” (Ch.16)
o Josh Kaplan, “The Transnational Human Rights Movement and States of
Emergency in Israel/Palestine” (Ch. 14)
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Taylor, P. J. (1994) “The State as Container: Territoriality in the Modern World-System.”
Progress in Human Geography 18(2): 151-62.
MIDTERM ESSAYS. October 21, due Friday Oct 28 (Questions and answer sent via email)
(See details on p. 1 & 2 of syllabus). This is a take-home assignment –we will send the three
subjects that you need to address via email on Friday Oct 21 at 11 am.
V. THE BORDER IN A GLOBAL WORLD:
November 4
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Global Networks/Transnational Urban Systems.
The neutralization of borders in the new economic regime for trade and investment.
Is a border-control policy regarding people flows viable?
The re-positioning of citizenship/Global Civil Society
Readings:

Cornelius, Wayne. 2005. “Controlling ‘unwanted’ immigration: Lessons from the United
States 1993-2004.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 31(4), 775-794.
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Ch. 7, "Local Actors in Global Politics" in A Sociology of Globalization
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Pierre Bourdieu, "The Social Conditions of the International Circulation of
Ideas," p. 220-228 in Richard Shusterman (ed.) Bourdieu: A Critical Reader (Oxford,
Blackwell, 1999)
Suggested Readings:

From Deciphering the Global:
o Rami Nashashibi, “Ghetto Cosmopolitanism: Making Theory at the Margins”
(Ch. 12)
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o Evalyn W. Tennant, “Locating Transnational Activists: The United States AntiApartheid Movement and the Confines of the National” (Ch. 6)
o Sarah Busse Spencer, “Becoming Global? Evangelism and Transnational
Practices in Russian Society” (Ch. 4)
VI. MEGA-CITIES AND MEGA MIGRATIONS: CHINA’S URBAN FUTURES.
November 11.
Instead of class: come to the conference by this name. Several of the speakers are on our
syllabus; there are several researchers coming from China to present their projects
internal migrations, poverty and inequality in China.
Woods Auditorium, Avery Hall, Nov 11 10 am to 5 pm.
November 18. Class needs to be cancelled. We will reschedule. November 25: Thanksgiving
holiday –no class.
VII. INEQUALITY IN A GLOBAL WORLD
December 2.
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New or accentuated forms of inequality in the earnings capacities of households
New or accentuated forms of inequality in the profit-making capacities of firms
New or accentuated forms of spatial inequality
Inequality at different scales: urban, metropolitan, national, global
Readings:

David Harvey (2006) Spaces of Global Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Uneven
Geographical Development (New York: Verso)
o Ch. 2 - "Notes towards a theory of uneven geographical development" (pp. 71116)

Ch. 6, "Emergent Global Classes" in A Sociology of Globalization.
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Swyngedouw, Erik and Nikolas C. Heynen. 2003. “Urban Political Ecology, Justice and
the Politics of Scale.” Antipode 34: 898-918.
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Calhoun, C (2004) “A World of Emergencies: Fear, Intervention, and the Limits of
Cosmopolitan Order.” Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology vol. 41, no. 4,
pp. 373-395
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S. Sassen (2010) "A Savage Sorting of Winners and Losers: Contemporary Versions of
Primitive Accumulation" in Globalizations vol.7(1): 23-50
VIII. SPACE AND RESCALING - CONCEPTUALIZING THE GLOBAL:
December 9
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 The production of social space and geographic scale
 The spatial organization of social, economic and cultural practices
 The politics of rescaling
Readings:

Bruno Latour (2005) "First Move: Localizing the Global", pp. 173-190 in Reassembling
the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory. New York: Oxford University
Press.
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Collinge, C. (2006) “Flat ontology and the deconstruction of scale: A response to
Marston, Jones, and Woodward.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers,
31: 244-51.
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Swyngedouw, Erik (2004) “Globalisation or ‘glocalization’? Networks, territories and
rescaling.” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 17(1): 25-48.
Suggested reading:

Marston, S., J. P. Jones and K. Woodward (2005) “Human Geography without Scale.”
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 30: 416-32.
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Leitner, Helga and Byron Miller. 2007. “Scale and the limitations of ontological debate: a
commentary on Marston, Jones and Woodward.” Transactions of the Institute of British
Geographers 30: 116-125.
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From Deciphering the Global:
o S. Sassen, "Introduction: Deciphering the Global"
o Matthew J. Hill, “Reimagining Old Havana: World Heritage and the Production
of Scale in Late Socialist Cuba” (Ch. 3)
December 15: hand in your final paper or a second set of three short essays (same format
as midterm)
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