Page 110 - Mellinato, Giulio, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2022. Complex Gateways. Labour and Urban History of Maritime Port Cities: The Northern Adriaticin a Comparative Perspective. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 110
plex Gateways
yond the capacity of the local control, it could happen that the political
instabilities of the city reflect themselves in the economic and port activ-
ities, or else, reversing the line of change, port difficulties can hinder the
entire city life.
In the literature, scholars have especially devoted attention to the
physical organization and organizational management of port systems
(González and Trujillo 2007), while port historians have adopted a more
comprehensive approach. However, some topics, such as the multiple po-
litical and institutional influences determining the evolutive path of a
port (along with technology, organization, and economics), still remain
an understudied territory.1
Recently, new attention has arisen for the study of the network of
interconnections surrounding the life of the biggest ports (Lee and Lee
2016; Dwarakisha and Salim 2015): supply chains, value chains, long dis-
tance infrastructural connections, and the role of ports as key links of a
more and more complex global connectivity system. From this point of
view, not only the performance evaluations require a comprehensive up-
date (Park and De 2004), but a new holistic approach should be adopted,
in order to properly locate the history of a port inside its proper econom-
ic, technical, but also socio-politico-institutional environment (Jacobs
and Notteboom 2011).
Looking at Trieste after the Second World War, during the Allied
Military Government period, occupying authorities used their complete
control of local economic activities to foster the social and ideological
“normalization” of the residents, and to direct the city’s political future
as well. Actually, the intertwining of economic instruments and politi-
cal aims was something coming into Trieste from outside, with the ex-
periences accumulated by AMG officials during their operations in the
rest of Italy, and such procedures were quietly supported by the Roosevelt
administration.2
1 Sarah Palmer spoke of ‘the recognition that a port is an interface, not only as con-
ventionally perceived between sea and land, but also between types of institutions
or interests’: Palmer 1990, 266; see also Tull 2014.
2 ‘It is for the sake of the future economic life of the world at large and thereby for
our own future that we should go on with the job at once and utilise all the resourc-
es within our means. A total war is not won by winning battles alone. The peace
must also be won’ (ACS, ACC, roll 508, box 92, folder 2165, Report of the Fea sur-
vey mission in Italy, p. 121).
110
yond the capacity of the local control, it could happen that the political
instabilities of the city reflect themselves in the economic and port activ-
ities, or else, reversing the line of change, port difficulties can hinder the
entire city life.
In the literature, scholars have especially devoted attention to the
physical organization and organizational management of port systems
(González and Trujillo 2007), while port historians have adopted a more
comprehensive approach. However, some topics, such as the multiple po-
litical and institutional influences determining the evolutive path of a
port (along with technology, organization, and economics), still remain
an understudied territory.1
Recently, new attention has arisen for the study of the network of
interconnections surrounding the life of the biggest ports (Lee and Lee
2016; Dwarakisha and Salim 2015): supply chains, value chains, long dis-
tance infrastructural connections, and the role of ports as key links of a
more and more complex global connectivity system. From this point of
view, not only the performance evaluations require a comprehensive up-
date (Park and De 2004), but a new holistic approach should be adopted,
in order to properly locate the history of a port inside its proper econom-
ic, technical, but also socio-politico-institutional environment (Jacobs
and Notteboom 2011).
Looking at Trieste after the Second World War, during the Allied
Military Government period, occupying authorities used their complete
control of local economic activities to foster the social and ideological
“normalization” of the residents, and to direct the city’s political future
as well. Actually, the intertwining of economic instruments and politi-
cal aims was something coming into Trieste from outside, with the ex-
periences accumulated by AMG officials during their operations in the
rest of Italy, and such procedures were quietly supported by the Roosevelt
administration.2
1 Sarah Palmer spoke of ‘the recognition that a port is an interface, not only as con-
ventionally perceived between sea and land, but also between types of institutions
or interests’: Palmer 1990, 266; see also Tull 2014.
2 ‘It is for the sake of the future economic life of the world at large and thereby for
our own future that we should go on with the job at once and utilise all the resourc-
es within our means. A total war is not won by winning battles alone. The peace
must also be won’ (ACS, ACC, roll 508, box 92, folder 2165, Report of the Fea sur-
vey mission in Italy, p. 121).
110
