The socio-economic interfaces of the Port City of Ghent: acknowledging its potential towards the third industrial revolution
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Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
Since the 1950s, the historical strong link between port and city changed and became weaker. Following the second industrial revolution based on petro-chemical processes, the maritime industrial and transport sectors focussed on economies of scale. This forced port activities to move away from their host cities in search of better accessible areas to develop (Olivier & Slack, 2006). Next to these spatial effects, the revolution also induced the upcoming of a powerful, but limited, group of multinationals (OECD/ITF, 2015). The combination of the enlargement of (bulk, liquid or container) cargo and the growing power of multinationals changed the governance of port cities. Already in the 1990s, Slack (1993, p. 580) stated that “Ports are becoming pawns in an game of commerce that is global in scale”. This change of power towards the private sector induced the establishment of independent port authorities and delineated port areas around the world (Verhoeven, 2010). It seemed that the former tight interweaving of urban and port governance was not suited to react fast enough to the ever changing requirements of the multinationals, resulting in a competitive disadvantage.
The second industrial revolution thus forced ports and cities to break up their different interfaces: economic, social, cultural, institutional and geographical. Consequently, worldwide ports grew with an increasing pace, this fuelled by the reciprocal relation between the competing port authorities and the economies of scale of the maritime petro-chemical and transport industry. However, since the global financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent economic downturn, this evolution is more and more questioned (ESPO, 2010; OECD, 2013; OECD/ITF, 2015).
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Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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