Selling the region as a hub: the promises, beliefs and contradictions of economic development strategies attracting logistics and flows

This chapter deals with the policy and governance dimension of logistics and freight distribution (including services such as trucking, warehousing, freight forwarding, container handling, and the like), related land uses, and circulation modes. Based on case studies of two regions in the Netherlands and Belgium, it examines how such strategies are being pursued and explores the way in which logistics are discursively framed and thus communicatively constructed. The chapter views logistics as a spatial imaginary, imbued with meanings of modernity, growth, and prosperity, making promises with which local policy endeavours to get the political process going.