Call for Papers: Port City Cultures, Values, or Maritime Mindsets. CPCL Vol 4, no 1
The European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes, Edited by Carola Hein, Sabine Luning, Paul van de Laar
Many scholars agree that port cities are a particular type of cities. They point to their location at the border of land and sea, their global connections, their particular port related infrastructure, or their often cosmopolitan lifestyles. Yet, there is no clear understanding whether these port-cities also have a particular port city culture, how to define it, how to measure it or even how to attach names to it. Multiple words exist to identify this particular state of port city culture in different disciplines. The maritime archaeologist Christer Westerdahl introduced the notion of “maritime cultural landscape” (Westerdahl 1992). The historians Jerry Bentley, Renate Bridenthal, and Kären Wigen have coined the term seascapes (2007). The planning historian Carola Hein has proposed the concept of port cityscapes, arguing that the reach of the port into its neighboring city and region merits comprehensive investigation (2011; 2016). Other planners and landscape architects have explored issues of design, water, and heritage: the work on hydrobiographies stands as an example (maybe) (J.W. Bosch, C. Soree 2016). Beatrice Moretti employs the notion of “portuality” (Moretti 2019).
The study of port city culture(s) or values invites researchers to reconceptualize concepts such as ‘culture’. Historically, culture has been associated with bounded communities and systems of thought. Social scientists have started to conceptualize the particular character and the selflogic of cities (Löw 2016), offering new approaches.
To contribute both to historical and contemporary analysis and future design and planning this special issue invites contributions that conceptualize the particular state of port cities, propose methodologies to better understand them, and discuss concrete case studies that highlight both the historic dimension of port city culture and the contemporary importance. It also invites authors to provide insight into the scales and temporalities of the discussion on port city cultures. Contributions can address a wide range of topics from architecture and planning, to port city music, literature, or games.
The full call for papers with the themes authors are invited to reflect upon can be downloaded here.
CPCL accepts full papers, written in English, 6,000 words maximum, including footnotes and bibliography. Manuscripts should be submitted online at cpcl.unibo.it by 31 December 2020. CPCL does not accept e-mail submissions.