Richard Sennett

Richard Sennett is a sociologist and author of some of the most provocative and incisive essays of our times in which he explores social life in cities, changes in work, and social theory. He is currently Senior Advisor to the United Nations in its Program on Climate Change and Cities, as well as Senior Fellow at the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University, and Visiting Professor of Urban Studies at MIT. He previously founded the New York Institute for the Humanities and was professor at the New York University and at the London School of Economics, where he continues to be emeritus professor of sociology.

Richard Sennett is known for his studies on social connections in the urban setting and the effects of urban life on today’s world. Notable in this area are his books The Uses of Disorder: Personal Identity and City Life (1970 – in Spanish Vida urbana e identidad personal, Península, 2002), Designing Disorder: Experiments and Disruptions in the City (1970 – in Spanish, Diseñar el desorden. Experimentos y disrupciones en la ciudad, Alianza Editorial, 2021), and Building and Dwelling: Ethics for the City (2018 – in Spanish, Construir y habitar. Etica para la ciudad, Anagrama, 2019). He has also investigated the impact of capitalism on ways of life and contemporary culture, with books including The Culture of the New Capitalism (2006 – in Spanish, La cultura del nuevo capitalism, Anagrama, 2006), The Craftsman (2008 – in Spanish, El artesano, Anagrama, 2009), and Together: The Rituals, Pleasures, and Politics of Cooperation (2012 – in Spanish, Juntos. Rituales, placeres y políticas de cooperación, Anagrama, 2012).

His most recent book is The Performer: Art, Life, Politics (2024 – in Spanish, El intérprete, Anagrama, 2024), in which he offers a historical, sociological, and autobiographical account of the relations between performing in art, politics, and everyday experience.