Ports, cities and the global maritime infrastructure

This chapter deals with the particular geographies of global maritime industries and their implications for concrete places, most notably port cities. In order to provide an up-to-date picture on this subject matter, we firstly apply a supply chain perspective regarding maritime and port geographies, since the movement of ocean vessels and the territorial or geographical impact of these flows cannot be separated from the underlying logistics networks, or their spatio-temporal performance and overarching political-economic power configuration. Secondly, we employ a relational perspective with respect to ports, cities and their interaction against the background of globalised logistics networks. This relational approach is inspired by understanding cities and regions as increasingly dependent on, and co-constituted by, larger associations, networks, mobilities and identities, rather than conceiving these entities as fixed in territories within a bounded space, delineated by clear margins. For illustrative purposes, we add some empirical insights from two cases studies on related developments in the Netherlands, particularly the port city of Rotterdam and the inland port situated in Venlo.