Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ContestedPort (Contested port cities: a global geography of community conflicts)
Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31
This research focused on the making of global ports as an urgent societal issue.
Port cities, as well as being distinctive political economic nodes for international networks, are paradigmatic examples of the co-existence between people and multiscalar infrastructure. Inhabitants of port cities live alongside infrastructure serving a global system, which determines the modes of production and types of extraction from local territories. Here, the discrepancy between the localised concentration of costs to inhabitants and the spillover benefits gained by the oligopoly that controls the globalised maritime trade and related infrastructure becomes starkly visible. The inexorable growth of global ports is producing multidimensional frictions.. The expansion of port-related infrastructure requires more material resources including space, water and air, potentially producing deterritorialising dynamics1. Going beyond the scalar conception of “global logistics versus local territories”, such frictions can be understood as forces that emerge from the motion of different metabolisms and systems of values.
The many emergent social mobilizations contesting port expansion in cities and regions around the world are questioning the ongoing socio-economic paradigm that has governed port cities over the last half century, which justifies the infinite growth of such infrastructure, and its environmental costs and benefits. They imagine other territorial models for reformulating co-existence with ports. This is turning the port city into relevant ground for renovated epistemological debates on transitions towards healthier and more sustainable territories.
The paradigmatic changes affecting port-city regions are unprecedented, with increasing risks associated to climate change, including sea level rise, combined with the economic reorganisation of global shipping taking over ports, creating new territorial (im)balances. This new situation requires the formulation of a critical approach, which considers the experience of local communities in the formulation of responses for resilient futures.
The main objective of this project was to articulate an original approach to port-city conflicts as sprawling but interconnected phenomena, developing a theoretical discussion from the angle of social science.
Specific objectives were:
1. To articulate a theoretical framework for analysing port conflicts in social sciences, relevant especially to geographers, sociologists, urban planners and anthropologists.
2. To develop a methodology for identifying contested practices in projects of port expansion and impacts on local communities, preparing the base for the ethnographic work.
3. Testing the methodology conducting empirical research.
4. Disseminating results through academic articles and communications at international conferences, as well as the creation of an online platform.
Port cities, as well as being distinctive political economic nodes for international networks, are paradigmatic examples of the co-existence between people and multiscalar infrastructure. Inhabitants of port cities live alongside infrastructure serving a global system, which determines the modes of production and types of extraction from local territories. Here, the discrepancy between the localised concentration of costs to inhabitants and the spillover benefits gained by the oligopoly that controls the globalised maritime trade and related infrastructure becomes starkly visible. The inexorable growth of global ports is producing multidimensional frictions.. The expansion of port-related infrastructure requires more material resources including space, water and air, potentially producing deterritorialising dynamics1. Going beyond the scalar conception of “global logistics versus local territories”, such frictions can be understood as forces that emerge from the motion of different metabolisms and systems of values.
The many emergent social mobilizations contesting port expansion in cities and regions around the world are questioning the ongoing socio-economic paradigm that has governed port cities over the last half century, which justifies the infinite growth of such infrastructure, and its environmental costs and benefits. They imagine other territorial models for reformulating co-existence with ports. This is turning the port city into relevant ground for renovated epistemological debates on transitions towards healthier and more sustainable territories.
The paradigmatic changes affecting port-city regions are unprecedented, with increasing risks associated to climate change, including sea level rise, combined with the economic reorganisation of global shipping taking over ports, creating new territorial (im)balances. This new situation requires the formulation of a critical approach, which considers the experience of local communities in the formulation of responses for resilient futures.
The main objective of this project was to articulate an original approach to port-city conflicts as sprawling but interconnected phenomena, developing a theoretical discussion from the angle of social science.
Specific objectives were:
1. To articulate a theoretical framework for analysing port conflicts in social sciences, relevant especially to geographers, sociologists, urban planners and anthropologists.
2. To develop a methodology for identifying contested practices in projects of port expansion and impacts on local communities, preparing the base for the ethnographic work.
3. Testing the methodology conducting empirical research.
4. Disseminating results through academic articles and communications at international conferences, as well as the creation of an online platform.
A theoretical framework of port-city conflicts was defined by putting in dialogue an urban political ecology of port-city transformation together with critical geography focusing on logistics and the politics of circulation. This implied unfolding why and how spatial and environmental inequalities, justice and social change have become emerging and ubiquitous issues in the ongoing, turbulent reconfiguration of port cities. It required exploring how port infrastructure has become increasingly privatized and corporatized, with the decisions of corporatized port authorities concerning port infrastructure that are no longer necessarily aligned with the needs of cities and their citizens. It required characterizing the material condition of the ‘glocal’ governance mismatch – a crisis of cost and benefit distribution, with environmental costs and other
impacts locally socialized, while there is a spillover of benefits for a few private stakeholders. Together with investigating the economic and geographic background of port-city conflicts, this approach demanded structuring the response of citizens; this implied conceptualizing a method to understand social mobilization in port territories, their interconnectedness, dynamics, and achievements.
This project examined several paradigmatic case studies; a more profound case analysis has been conducted for the port cities of Piraeus and Valencia, implementing ethnographic methods.
This project has also developed an online platform dedicated to conflicts between citizens and ports in port cities, displaying the global geography of urban conflicts emerging on the edge of sea and land. Expanding the engagement of this investigation beyond purely academic ground, this research has established multiple collaborations with the civic society: the content of the platform has been co-produced with active citizens and local organizations engaged in social mobilization in port cities. The platform contains 22 cases of social mobilization in port-city conflicts so far. It also works as a repository of critical material for understanding port-city conflicts, and it includes academic articles and books, community-developed documentaries, two issues of a zine I co-produced with the contributors, and a podcast with voices of citizens contesting port expansion around the world I have produced. This platform is a tool for visualizing the ubiquity and interconnectedness of conflicts, as well as a tool for triggering transnational debates among citizens of different port cities.
The outcomes of this research can be found in three academic articles (one published and two under review at the time of writing), an accessible article in Spanish press, several other accessible blogs published on PortCityFutures.nl
Results have been disseminated also through eleven international academic events, including conferences, guest lectures, festivals and a talk in a museum.
impacts locally socialized, while there is a spillover of benefits for a few private stakeholders. Together with investigating the economic and geographic background of port-city conflicts, this approach demanded structuring the response of citizens; this implied conceptualizing a method to understand social mobilization in port territories, their interconnectedness, dynamics, and achievements.
This project examined several paradigmatic case studies; a more profound case analysis has been conducted for the port cities of Piraeus and Valencia, implementing ethnographic methods.
This project has also developed an online platform dedicated to conflicts between citizens and ports in port cities, displaying the global geography of urban conflicts emerging on the edge of sea and land. Expanding the engagement of this investigation beyond purely academic ground, this research has established multiple collaborations with the civic society: the content of the platform has been co-produced with active citizens and local organizations engaged in social mobilization in port cities. The platform contains 22 cases of social mobilization in port-city conflicts so far. It also works as a repository of critical material for understanding port-city conflicts, and it includes academic articles and books, community-developed documentaries, two issues of a zine I co-produced with the contributors, and a podcast with voices of citizens contesting port expansion around the world I have produced. This platform is a tool for visualizing the ubiquity and interconnectedness of conflicts, as well as a tool for triggering transnational debates among citizens of different port cities.
The outcomes of this research can be found in three academic articles (one published and two under review at the time of writing), an accessible article in Spanish press, several other accessible blogs published on PortCityFutures.nl
Results have been disseminated also through eleven international academic events, including conferences, guest lectures, festivals and a talk in a museum.
This research has produced progress beyond the state of the art, unfolding what socio-spatial and political conditions lead to port-city conflicts, how power relationships between port and city are being reformulated and what are the implications for their surrounding territories. It revealed the global geography of port-city conflicts, highlighting their interconnectedness in terms of material causes, logistical mechanisms, and grassroots strategies and visions emerging from contesting logistical expansionism. The empirical studies in Piraeus and Valencia have shown that logistical restructuring is triggering new port-city power relations that produce new urban forms and contested geographies, as well as novel socio-political initiatives. It revealed how through social mobilization, citizens are creating new alliances bonding across spatial and environmental justice values, shaping narratives of alternative futures for port cities.
The online platform promoted the organization of international and interdisciplinary activities, triggering the transmission of knowledge between academia and civic society. Based on the collaborations that took place through the online platform, this project has triggered transnational debates by organizing original events that brought together for the first time representants of citizens collectives in port cities, and academia, through roundtables and other formal and informal events. The events aimed at sharing citizens' experiences in relation to port expansion, and the values, strategies, and visions that emerged from social mobilization.
The online platform promoted the organization of international and interdisciplinary activities, triggering the transmission of knowledge between academia and civic society. Based on the collaborations that took place through the online platform, this project has triggered transnational debates by organizing original events that brought together for the first time representants of citizens collectives in port cities, and academia, through roundtables and other formal and informal events. The events aimed at sharing citizens' experiences in relation to port expansion, and the values, strategies, and visions that emerged from social mobilization.