THE RELATIONAL GEOMETRY OF THE PORT-CITY INTERFACE. CASE STUDIES OF GHENT, BELGIUM, AND AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

This paper applies a relational approach to the study of port-city interfaces. Such approach allows us to analyse how actors are connected, transact and assign meaning and value to local development. Much of the literature and studies on the port-city interface have primarily focussed on late 20thcentury transformation processes at the urban waterfront. This fails to appreciate the often continued presence of port activity within cities and falls short in understanding how development agendas of port cities are relationally constituted. In this paper, we develop the hypothesis that the port-city interface is not a closed system, but a relational construct through which heterogeneous flows of actors, assets and structures coalesce and take place. Using this perspective, a conceptual framework capable of categorizing different relational port-city interfaces is presented and applied in a schematic way to the port cities of Ghent, Belgium, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. By mapping the relational geometries of these port cities, our results show how both public and private actors through networking strategically relate in different ways, across different territorial scales, within different institutionalised structures and between different economic sectors. Analysing the relational geometries provide us with examples of different dynamic actor-relational interplays and how this results in particular development trajectories. Eventually, our approach questions the perceived geographical dichotomy between port and city. This paper ends with a discussion about the value of relational geography to an understanding of the diversity of port-cities.

Publication year:2017

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