Page 23 - 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. 23
Complex Gateways: The North Adriatic Port System in Historical Perspective
pressures from the external environment were mainly discharged over
the labour factor, triggering a stimulus and response dynamic that every
time led to a conflictual phase. The labour factor was never passive in de-
termining the new outline of port organization, and in so doing, workers
largely contributed to the redefinition of the new settlement of the port-
city nexus. After our research, we can say that excluding the labour dy-
namics from every historical analysis of the evolution of a port system
can led to serious misunderstandings.
Some other transversal themes are present throughout the entire
book. According to us, the two most important are: the overlap of gov-
erning responsibilities and the role of the context within which a seaport
operates.
On the one hand, the overlap of roles and responsibilities (port
management; city, regional national governing bodies; port, logistic and
maritime independent operators, workers) inevitably causes a systemic
instability, where a dynamic equilibrium between regulations and inter-
dependencies must be found and implemented continuously. The overlap
seems to be the heart of the entire question: if it is managed well, then
the city-port nexus is functioning, and the port can be a real gateway.
In contrast, if the overlap is not managed efficiently, the port performs
badly, projecting its dysfunctionalities into the entire local socioeconom-
ic environment, triggering a vicious circuit of greater conflict, less profit-
ability, and a worsening of the general conditions.
On the other hand, the research published in this book suggests that
a sound evaluation of the general economic performance of such a com-
plex system as the city-port nexus is possible only when the social envi-
ronment is fully integrated within the analysis. Technically speaking, ig-
noring the social context may bias every analysis related to the real level
of efficiency and performance of a seaport, because considering exoge-
nous the human and social dimensions will inevitably lead to an under-
estimation of the so-called ‘transition costs’ related to the technological
development. In times of continuous and accelerating techno-organiza-
tional change, it seems to be a far from marginal limitation.
The chapters in this book can provide many examples. Some of them
seem to be quite evident even at a first glance. For example, the strug-
gle concerning the degree of rigidity of the port-labour market in Genoa
and Trieste (Luisa Piccinno and Aleksej Kalc) during the eighteenth-nine-
teenth centuries presents a structural similarity to the conflicts for la-
23
pressures from the external environment were mainly discharged over
the labour factor, triggering a stimulus and response dynamic that every
time led to a conflictual phase. The labour factor was never passive in de-
termining the new outline of port organization, and in so doing, workers
largely contributed to the redefinition of the new settlement of the port-
city nexus. After our research, we can say that excluding the labour dy-
namics from every historical analysis of the evolution of a port system
can led to serious misunderstandings.
Some other transversal themes are present throughout the entire
book. According to us, the two most important are: the overlap of gov-
erning responsibilities and the role of the context within which a seaport
operates.
On the one hand, the overlap of roles and responsibilities (port
management; city, regional national governing bodies; port, logistic and
maritime independent operators, workers) inevitably causes a systemic
instability, where a dynamic equilibrium between regulations and inter-
dependencies must be found and implemented continuously. The overlap
seems to be the heart of the entire question: if it is managed well, then
the city-port nexus is functioning, and the port can be a real gateway.
In contrast, if the overlap is not managed efficiently, the port performs
badly, projecting its dysfunctionalities into the entire local socioeconom-
ic environment, triggering a vicious circuit of greater conflict, less profit-
ability, and a worsening of the general conditions.
On the other hand, the research published in this book suggests that
a sound evaluation of the general economic performance of such a com-
plex system as the city-port nexus is possible only when the social envi-
ronment is fully integrated within the analysis. Technically speaking, ig-
noring the social context may bias every analysis related to the real level
of efficiency and performance of a seaport, because considering exoge-
nous the human and social dimensions will inevitably lead to an under-
estimation of the so-called ‘transition costs’ related to the technological
development. In times of continuous and accelerating techno-organiza-
tional change, it seems to be a far from marginal limitation.
The chapters in this book can provide many examples. Some of them
seem to be quite evident even at a first glance. For example, the strug-
gle concerning the degree of rigidity of the port-labour market in Genoa
and Trieste (Luisa Piccinno and Aleksej Kalc) during the eighteenth-nine-
teenth centuries presents a structural similarity to the conflicts for la-
23
