Renowned sociologist Sharon Zukin discussed her latest book, The Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places, which explores the gentrification of cities and the subsequent value placed on “authentic” urban life, examining how this new demand for authenticity has driven out those people who were originally responsible for it. By tracing the economic and social evolution of six areas of New York, Professor Zukin explored how our desire to consume authentic experience has become a central force in making cities more exclusive.
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Sharon Zukin
Sharon Zukin is Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and the City University Graduate Center, auhtor of books on cities, culture, and consumer culture and researcher on urban, cultural, and economic change.
Fran Tonkiss
Fran Tonkiss is Professor of Sociology, and Deputy Head of Department. Her research and teaching is in the fields of urban and economic sociology. Her research interests focus on urban inequalities, urban development and design, social and spatial divisions, and the socio-economic organisation of urban space. Publications in these fields include Cities by Design: the social life of urban form (Polity, 2013), Space, the City and Social Theory (Polity, 2005), and Contemporary Economic Sociology: Globalisation, Production, Inequality (Routledge, 2006). She is currently managing editor of Economy and Society; she was previously an editor of the British Journal of Sociology, and remains a member of the editorial board.