Description of the thematic research groups, and the new structure of PCF.
Thematic Research Groups
Coastal Cities
In this theme a dedicated research effort on the determinants of coastal port cities persistence in the history of taming the delta is proposed, with the potential to significantly advance the scientific understanding of economic sustainability of coastal port cities today.
The research will focus on the longue durée of the two-axis deltaic system and transport. Developing the repertoire in the spatial, morphological reciprocity between the two axes in order to – with research by design – project economical sustainable futures. The research thus couples the other themes in the PCF research in this specific approach.
Small Ports Big Challenges
Small port cities, situated along coastlines, rivers, lakes, and other water bodies, play a crucial role in regional economies despite their modest size. Unlike Europe's top 75 ports, which handle over 10 million tons of cargo annually, small ports manage smaller vessels and capacities with less extensive infrastructure. They are essential transshipment points for goods and people, supporting local economies, trade, and providing waterway access.
Examples like Messina, Europe's largest passenger port, and Cologne, which is the largest inland port on the Rhine after Duisburg, illustrate the diverse roles of small ports within their ecosystems. These ports, though limited in size, are integral to their regional contexts. Small ports also serve specialized functions in fisheries, tourism, and the military, often cooperating with larger ports in the same territory.
Despite their significance, small port cities face numerous challenges, including infrastructure limitations, financial constraints, and intense competition. They need comprehensive planning and policy support to address issues such as energy transition, sustainability, and regulatory compliance. Research into these ports should focus on their long-term development and interaction with regional and territorial contexts, aiming to uncover opportunities for cooperation and upscaling, and to address their unique challenges.
Everyday Infrastructures
Ports are infrastructural hubs connecting sea and hinterlands. These material structures are shapers of economic flows of goods, people and knowledge and they are embedded in geopolitical dynamics. But what goes into the making of these infrastructures? How are they embedded in everyday practices of state authorities, corporate designers and constructors? How do they affect the lives of citizens living in their vicinity and the users of transport corridors? For studying how global port developments are grounded in human experiences and daily practices – both at land and at sea – we need to approach infrastructures not as objects, but as relational networks which are constructed, maintained, used as well as contested.
Human-Centered Port City Transitions
Cities and port cities have the unique ability to create the conditions for society to prosper. Port cities play a vital role in fostering societal prosperity. However, the growth of port cities poses challenges to the ecosystem and requires a strategic balance of resources. The symbiotic relationship can play out positively but also negatively depending on how the port city goes about with the carrying capacity of the ecosystem to support human activities in a densely populated and highly industrialized port city space. The fragmentation of governance and the interlinkages between adjacent functions on the interface can turn into conflict if not managed well. A reconceptualization is needed to reconnect the relationships between ports, cities, and people.
Mixed Methods and Design Strategies
PortCityFutures has over the past couple of years started to develop new shared methodologies to connect space, society and culture. Building on this trajectory, the PCF research theme on Methods takes the lead in further developing forms of analysis that are fundamentally spatial, and take social, affective, mnemonic and heritage values (to name a few) explicitly into account. We are focussing on multiple forms of mapping (GIS, mental, stakeholder, etc.), as well as sensorial and design research; and we are revealing the subjectivity of stakeholders’ perspectives by other means, allowing inequality and conflicts of interest to be foregrounded in building theory, and creating the means by which societal actors may be able to identify, address and ideally resolve spatially grounded conflicts of interest.
