Abstract
Port cities are on the front-line of a changing global urban system. There are problems from restructuring of trade, logistics and ship-building, creating economic dependency, social exclusion and cultural destruction. Meanwhile, there exists new opportunities in heritage tourism, cultural industries and ecological restoration, but these opportunities often have negative impacts. This paper addresses the question of how port cities can steer from negative to positive development paths and outcomes. It sets out a way of working with inter-connected economic, social, political and technological factors—a ‘synergistic’ approach to mapping of problems and design of policy responses. Looking at three contrasting examples of port cities—Liverpool, Dubai and Mauritius—we can compare the inter-connected dynamics of growth and decline. Then we can understand the inter-connected factors of successful regeneration and sustainable prosperity, not as linear ‘policy fixes’, but more like synergistic processes of learning, innovation and capacity building. These call for new models for creative innovation in social and community enterprise: cultural heritage both old and new; new social finance and investment; socio-ecological restoration with participative governance, etc. Such pathways and opportunities are now emerging in many different locations; this paper provides methods and tools to understand them and promote them.
Highlights
Through history, the majority of larger cities have been located on the coast, as ports and harbors were the hubs for most forms of trade, investment and innovation
The new spatial geography of cities is fluid and emergent, and previously defined urban structures are spreading into globalizededge city‘ sprawls, agglomerations, airport parks, logistics depots, and peri-urban hinterlands [1]
Such problems and conflicts point to a unique set of opportunities, which are centred on port areas, port cities or port-centred agglomerations:
Summary
The majority of larger cities have been located on the coast, as ports and harbors were the hubs for most forms of trade, investment and innovation. The challenge is not just to understand a static situation, but to anticipate and design creative responses, which work at multiple levels for multiple functions All this calls for new ways of thinking and working with complex inter-connected problems. By mapping ageneric‘ port city concept, it explores the different types of development paths, the goals of a synergistic ―3.0‖ model, and the inter-connections of social, economic and cultural resources. This is the basis for comparison of three very different case studies: Port Louis, Mauritius; Dubai, UAE; and Liverpool, UK. A final conclusion draws out some further implications for policy and research
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