Saskia Sassen

The writings of Saskia Sassen have had a tremendous influence on me, and in many ways underlie the idea of place branding and certainly have huge relevance to the city of Dubai. Sassen is best known for her 1991 book "The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo" which looks at the effect of globalization on the organization of urban economic activity and the changing role of the state in structuring it. Place and its relationship to business in the global city also figures prominently in much of Sassen's work. The 2002 anthology edited by Sassen titled "Global Networks, Linked Cities" elaborates on much of the theory behind her earlier writings through various essays about different global cities. Ali Parsa and Ramin Keivani from South Bank University in London contribute their essay titled "The Hormuz Corridor: Building a Cross-Border Region Between Iran and the UAE" and flesh out many of Sassen's theories in looking at Dubai's economic activity in the context of this Hormuz Corridor.