Weaving the port into the socialist city: Fluid connections and transgressive movements in Gdańsk and Gdynia

Abstract

During the communist era, the ports of Gdańsk and Gdynia were Poland’s window – and door – to the world. The merchant marine economy became increasingly important to the Polish state as its foreign-denominated debt grew in the 1970s, but Polish sailors posed challenges to the state’s control of space. Polish sailors travelled across political and ideological borders bringing goods – both declared and smuggled – into the ports of Poland from the outside. They provided key spatial connections and networks for the flow of goods and information into Poland. Polish sailors brought the open, connected and transgressive qualities of the ports into their cities. In doing so, sailors re-shaped the authorities’ notion of fixed and controllable urban spaces of Gdańsk and Gdynia into a dynamic movement of goods and peoples, a series of networks and relationships, and points linked to a broader, global web that was increasingly connecting the world.