Keeping Port Cities Simple: A Call for More Concrete Research

How can we better grasp, articulate and examine particular character traits of port cities, especially when research endeavors frequently tend to develop from presumptions about the unique or exceptional position of port cities in the first place? Responding to a recent special journal issue by the PortCityFutures board that explicitly frames the question of port cities’ peculiarity from a cultural perspective (Hein, Luning and Van de Laar, 2021), in this blog post PhD candidates Yvonne van Mil and Vincent Baptist play devil’s advocate while they come to terms with their shared concerns and struggles when conducting port city-related research.