Preliminary Programme

This paper is focusing on the theoretical implications for an economic analysis of transportation networks and gateway functions of a case study. The starting point is the result of the analysis of the changing role of gateways, and of the actual gateway shifting from a city to a series of cities in the Venetian region from 18th to 20th century.
Changing transport technologies imply different organizations of inter-modal exchanges, and more or less intense economic functions of gateway cities. But these changes intertwin with political events and decisions, and more general economic changes: they could at the same time be read as an effect of these transformations, and as a causal factor. Building up a coherent approach to these complex interactions linking together network analysis and (new) economic geography is the aim of the paper. (Show less)

The theory of a gateway city is used by scholar s in many different fields of research. The aim of this paper is to use the gateway theory to explain the movement of goods and capital around harbors by the North sea and the Baltic sea, and their connection the larger world. To do so I have chosen the port city of Gothenburg on the Swedish west coast as an example of a gateway.
The first part of the paper is about how to identify an gateway and how it has been used by different fields of research in the past.
The second part of the paper tells the (short) story about the gateway city of Gothenburg and its predecessors along the river Göta Älv.
The gateway theory plays an important role in my ongoing project to build a database from the “harbor fee records” (tolagsavgift) on ships and merchandise on selected years 1760-1815. (Show less)

In this paper, the development of airports during the antebellum from basic/rudimentary airfields into infrastructure nodes, transfer engines, and urban phenomena is examined from an institutionalist-historical approach. Specific attention is given to the relationship between urbanization, industrialization and airport development at the city level.
Airport development is conceived as a collective arrangement which develops along (un)determined development path effecting (and effected by) various domains: spatial, economic, institutional and socio-cultural. In this sense, the relationships between the development of the airport and urbanization processes are co-evolutionary e.g. all above mentioned domains affect each other directly or indirectly. As a result, path dependent processes are created that will characterize the spatial-economic development of airports and cities for a long period of time. (Show less)

Ghent was the biggest city and the most important grain gateway in the
southern Low Countries form 14th century to 16th century, Geographical
advantage such as it located at the junction of two main rivers is
pointed as the essential factor of development of grain trade that
supplied enough grain to the big population of the city and worked as
gateway city in more larger scale. In the same time the staple right
of grain is emphasized as the institutional factor to keep its
superiority position in the grain trade. But according to the analysis
of the relation price fluctuation and grain circulation using precise
data from the registers of hospitals and abbeys of Flanders cities, it
seems that the other factors are necessary for the transformation from
consumption centre to gateway city of grain: The stability and
sustainability of grain circulation based on multilayer structure and
the limitation of market function in the grain circulation based on
regulation and political action. In this paper firstly I describe the
structure of grain circulation in the Low Countries. Then I point out
the nature of necessary factors for the transformation. (Show less)

Gateways have been defined in many ways, but one of the features which they all have in common is that they connect separate urban systems or hinterlands with each other throughout the 'known world'. The dichotomy in urban history places central places on the opposite side. These cities cater a definite and closed complementary region, or hinterland as some would say. Thanks to Hohenberg and Lees both systems have been integrated, but their relations as urban realities between one and other are still somewhat clouded. For instance, central places have been more often than not been relegated to the interior, while gateways have been situated along the coast. Although this was not Hohenberg’s and Lees’ intention, this has biased the way we look at communication, trade flows and transport at large. Maritime trade remains connected to long distance trade, while land trade continues to be regarded as local or short-distance trade. In such a perspective land trade can not develop itself and the linkage of maritime trade to the interior markets remains fairly limited. The aim of this paper is to propose some adjustments to the Hohenberg-Lees model to revive its erstwhile dynamics (Show less)