I Dream of a Truly Transparent City

By Saskia Sassen – March 24, 2018

Moia

PROFESSOR SASSEN, BEFORE WE TRAVEL INTO THE FUTURE WE’D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT THE PAST. CITIES LIKE ROME, ISTANBUL OR BEIJING HAVE ALL OUTLIVED EMPIRES, WARS, AND MANY DIFFERENT RULERS AND SOCIETIES. WHY ARE CITIES SO RESILIENT?

Indeed, cities have been able to survive across centuries and millennia – it’s quite extraordinary. Why? I argue it’s because cities are complex systems that are never really finished. And in that mix of complexity and incompleteness lies the possibility for cities to survive for a very long time.

PLEASE ELABORATE.

When you think city, you think cement. You think roads, buildings, allocated spaces. So there’s a rigidity built into a city. But at the same time it’s not a closed system. In fact, it’s also not just open, it is incomplete. There is forever something that could be added to or changed in a city. Therefore a city has the capability to change built into it.

Read the full article here: Moia