Abstract:
Port Cities have a long history as places of economic exchange and as gateways for the transmission of people, goods, buildings and urban form. Since the mid 19th century, globalization has further promoted them as major nodes in a worldwide economic network. Port cities continue to be at the forefront for the creation of new cultural and social practices, multi-ethnic neighborhoods, imported building materials and technologies, and urban planning.

This session proposes to examine the actors that constitute and shape the exchange among port cities and look at maritime urban history from different angles, combining social and cultural perspectives with the history of architecture, urban planning and economic enterprise. We ask: To what extent did local or global, private or governmental forces promote exchange? How did maritime mobility, economic globalization, and migration manifest itself in waterfront cities? How did global political and economic events alter the appearance and usage of port cities? We welcome case studies concerning one or more port cities from around the world.

Papers could include analysis of a trading company, of technological transmission between a mother port and its colonial ports, of business partners and their private houses, or of migration in port cities around the world.

Please contact the session conveners with proposals and questions:

* Lars Amenda (amenda@zeitgeschichte-hamburg.de)
* Carola Hein (chein@brynmawr.edu)

European Association for Urban History
IXth International Conference on Urban History
Comparative History of European Cities
Lyon, 27th – 30th August 2008

Open June 4, 2007 – Closed Novembre 1st 2007

Conference web site : http://eauh.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr