The Politics of Equity: who owns the city?

Since 2006, over 134 million hectares of African land – roughly the size of France, Spain and Germany – has been bought by foreign investors, the region where urban growth is most expected in the next 20 years. At the same time large swathes of global cities like London, New York and Paris are owned or being developed by foreign sovereign wealth funds and international corporate investors. Leading urban sociologist Saskia Sassen – who identified the global cities dynamic – argues that these new and tacit patterns of ownership are having a negative impact on the ‘cityness’, vibrancy and accessibility of urban systems by cutting off parts of the city from public use. Could this form of investment and speculation in cities and buildings be causing de-urbanisation? These issues will be debated with policymakers and leaders who have been involved in reshaping the structure of urban ownership and investment.

Jean-Louis Missika (@jlmissika) is deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of urbanism, architecture, projects of Greater Paris, economic development and attractiveness, and was co-director of the Anne Hidalgo’s team when she was elected Mayor in the 2014 Municipal elections in Paris. He is a sociologist specialising in media sociology who has taught alongside his career in politics and consultancy. His political career began in 2008 when he was elected councillor of Paris and was appointed deputy Mayor by Bertrand Delanoë.

Saskia Sassen (@SaskiaSassen) is Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and co-chairs its Committee on Global Thought. Her research and writing focuses on, immigration, global cities, the new networked technologies, and changes within the liberal state that result from current transnational conditions. Her most recent book is Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy (Harvard University Press 2014). She has received multiple honours, most recently the 2013 Principe de Asturias Prize for the Social Sciences.

Anthony Williams (@TonyWilliamsDC), the former Mayor of Washington, D.C. (1999 – 2007), is the current Chief Executive Officer of the Federal City Council. Before his election as Mayor, he was the independent Chief Financial Officer of the District from 1995-98, working with and on behalf of local officials, the D.C. Financial Control Board, and the U.S. Congress. He has taught public finance and urban leadership as the William H. Bloomberg Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, while coordinating programs for the Municipal Innovation Program at the Ash Centre.

Craig Calhoun (@craigjcalhoun) is Director and President of LSE.

This event is one of the series of five public Global Debates celebrating ten years of the Urban Age programme. The debates discuss five core themes that have been the focus of research and debate at the Urban Age since 2005. The event series is organised by LSE Cities and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society, in association with Guardian Cities. 

LSE Cities (@LSECities) is an international centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science that carries out research, conferences, education and outreach activities in London and abroad. Its mission is to study how people and cities interact in a rapidly urbanising world, focussing on how the design of cities impacts on society, culture and the environment.