Places of constant hustle and bustle, where people and goods arrive and depart, where land and water meet: port cities have traditionally, and quite easily, given rise to slogans, metaphors, and even myths ascribed to their particular maritime urban profile. Such conceptions are not merely superficial one-liners. As pointed out in the introduction to this volume, they also function as invitations to explore micro-geographies, often overlooked associations and traces in the contemporary environment (Harteveld, 2021), and to further theorize the distinct character of port cities (Hein, Luning, & Van de Laar, 2021). However, as with more general urban discourses, trying to pinpoint ‘the port city’ leads to the realization that any notion of ‘port cityness’ inevitably brings together certain meanings and dimensions that potentially compete with and contradict each other (Vigar, Graham, & Healey, 2005). In the context of port cities, the well-known ‘hustle and bustle’ narrative evokes imagery with an economic dimension of the mass cargo serving as indicator of global port competition; a social dimension, of the constant in- and outflux of varied groups of people; and a cultural dimension, of the places and practices port city residents and visitors have engaged in. This chapter focuses on the latter aspect, thereby examining the cultural dimension of port cities through the history of their often-stereotyped pleasures (Baptist, 2020), and how over time these have been reconsidered and relocated through different urban planning initiatives. [...]@en

Shipping canals have supported maritime traffic and port development for many centuries. Radical transformations of these shipping landscapes through land reclamation, diking, and canalization were celebrated as Herculean works of progress and modernity. Today, shipping canals are the sites of increasing tension between economic growth and associated infrastructural interventions focused on the quality, sustainability, and resilience of natural systems and spatial settlement patterns. Shifting approaches to land/water relations must now be understood in longer political histories in which pre-existing alliances influence changes in infrastructure planning. On the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the New Waterway (Nieuwe Waterweg), the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus universities PortCityFutures Center hosted an international symposium in October 2022 to explore the past, present, and future of this channel that links Rotterdam to the North Sea. Symposium participants addressed issues of shipping, dredging, and planning within in the Dutch delta, and linked them to contemporary debates on the environmental, spatial, and societal conditions of shipping canals internationally. The thematic issue builds on symposium conversations, and highlights the importance of spatial, economic, and political linkages in port and urban development. These spatial approaches contribute to more dynamic, responsive strategies for shipping canals through water management and planning.@en

Op 9 juni 1899, aan de vooravond van de twintigste eeuw waarin Rotterdam zijn status van wereldhaven definitief zou waarmaken, bezocht koningin Wilhelmina, begeleid door haar moeder koningin Emma, de stad aan de Maas. Als tienjarige had zij Rotterdam ook al een bezoek gebracht en toen een gedenksteen gelegd voor de naar haar genoemde Wilhelminakade, vertrekpunt van de Holland-Amerika-Lijn en een van de boegbeelden van de wereldhaven in opkomst. [...]@en

Following part 1 of Port City Cultures, Values, and Maritime Mindsets, this issue explores how cultures of port city territories are put into words, visualized, and can even be shaped. Continuing the argument that port city territories merit particular attention due to their location at the border of sea and land and the presence of global and local interests and stakeholders of differing sizes, this issue emphasizes once more the role that culture, values, and mindsets can play in understanding the historical relations and socio-spatial features of port cities, their socio-cultural construction, and their future design. The issue emphasizes the value of considering ways of perceiving, defining, and classifying port cities in relation to social context and powerful processes of meaning-making in academia and in the wider society.@en

Port cities are a particular type of territory and are often long-standing examples of resilience, bringing opportunities, wealth, and innovation to their nations and their citizens. They have developed at the crossroads of international trade and commerce and the intersection of sea and land. Flows of people through trade and migration have played a key role in their spatial, social and cultural development. Their strong local identities share legacies of diversity and cosmopolitanism, but also of colonialism and segregation. The Qingjing Mosque in Quanzhou, Fujian speaks of the exchange between Arabia and China along the maritime silk road. Hanseatic cities stand as an example of far-flung networks with districts for foreign traders—think of the German merchants who established Bryggen, the German dock, in Bergen, now a UNESCO world heritage site.@en

Since industrialisation began in the 19th century, some ports have been moving away from the cities that once hosted them. That separation was only possible if land was available where new port basins, industries, and other infrastructure could be constructed and where port activities could prosper without being restricted by urban functions. The port of Rotterdam represents an extreme example of port-city separation. This chapter shows how the port of Rotterdam transformed from a staple port into a transit port. Port activities moved towards the North Sea in four steps that were related to technological, institutional, and trade pattern changes and changes in port-city relations. Such transitions highlight the close relationships between trade patterns, technological innovations and changing governance patterns. Each expansion required close collaboration between business leaders and the municipality, because administrative borders needed to be expanded and infrastructure constructed. The growth also created friction among the various stakeholders in the region. The merchants of the staple markets protected their trades and traditions, whereas the harbour barons that benefited most from the high-volume trans-shipment of bulk commodities pushed the expansion of the port. To illustrate these steps in the separation of port and city, the chapter takes the case of petroleum as a key example. While beneficial for the economic development of the port –and to some degree the city–the separation of port and city has led to a loss of connection between port and city institutions. The chapter concludes by briefly examining the challenges and opportunities of port and city separation in terms of economic, spatial and cultural development.@en