Scholars from multiple disciplines explore similarities, dissimilarities and the ways in which sea-based networking influences urban landscapes and architecture, socio-economic and cultural development from the 19th to the 21st centuries.

Originally published in 1978. Josef Konvitz provides a broad comparative study of European port cities since the Renaissance by examining how they were built and rebuilt in the context of urban industrialization. Konvitz argues that as seafaring became more critical to Western civilization, intellectuals and rulers placed more importance on urban planning. Planning looked different, of course, in various European cities. In Paris, riverside planning was patched into the existing frame of the city, whereas Scandinavian towns on the Baltic were over-designed to accommodate a degree of maritime trade unsustainable for cities writ large. In the eighteenth century, city planning fell out of vogue, and new solutions were introduced to help solve the problems created by urban development. With a series of helpful maps, Konvitz's book is an important source for urban historians of early modern Europe.

Port cities have distinctive global dynamics, with long histories of casual labour, large migrant communities, and international trade networks. This in-depth comparative study examines contradictory global legacies across themes of urban identity, waterfront work and radicalism in key post-industrial port cities worldwide.

"The first in a new series set in and around the dark waterfront of Portland, Maine, featuring Brandon Blake a lean loner who lives on an old wooden cabin cruiser"--Jacket.

China has progressed dramatically since 1978 when the country started its economic reforms and opened up to the world economy. It took only three decades for China to develop from a closed, centrally planned economy with little sea-borne trade into the world's second largest economy with the largest container shipment volume in the world. The major coastal cities have been gateways linking China with the world and have experienced rapid urbanization and port growth. How has such port growth been speeded up and realized under strong state control and intervention? How have ports and their cities affected each other? What lessons can China’s port-cities learn from other countries, regions and cities? What will be the next stage of port-city interplays in China in this globalizing era? Answering these questions from a geographical perspective, James Wang looks into four sets of port-city relations in China: Economic and functional relations between port and city; port-city spatial relations; external network relations of cities through ports; and port-city governance. These relations formulate a conceptual framework which is used to interpret port-city interplays in individual ports and cities but also in multi-port regions such as the Pearl River Delta. Based on the author’s own research and investigations into more than 25 port cities in China over the past 18 years, this book provides vivid stories about China and challenge existing theories on port development.

This book illustrates and discusses the main characteristics of port-city development dynamics with a focus on the fast-growing city-states of the Middle East, which are emerging as key players in logistics and the global supply chain. Maritime ports and the cities hosting them have long fascinated scholars – geographers, economists, architects, urban planners, sociologists etc. – as they become centres of exchange where different social and urban environments meet, at the intersection between land and sea. Given that the current body of literature on the topic is biased – mainly concerning the Western world and East Asian region – with mono-disciplinary tendencies, this book outlines a theoretical basis from a wide range of literature, linking port-city studies, globalization theories and logistics, and adopts a multidisciplinary perspective. The main target audience of the book includes scholars and graduate students in urban studies, spatial planning, urban and regional economics, logistics, geography and transport geography with an interest in studying port geography and the port-city interface, port infrastructure development and port hinterland dynamics; it will also benefit policymakers and urban planners whose work involves these topics.