Preliminary Programme

La Barceloneta was built up in the 18th century outside the walls of the city of Barcelona, in the immediate area behind its port. Due to the previous condition of the space as the preferential area of maritime activities and to the priority that maritime professionals received in the concessions of real estate, the new neighborhood immediately became the neuralgic center of the Barcelonian port economy and the area of residence and social life of its workers. The exclusion of the maritime financial elite from the district did not prevent the premature existence of a vast network of stores and actors linked to seafaring, shipbuilding, ship supplies and the auxiliary activities of the maritime economy. This network was hugely affected by the impact of industrialization from the decade of 1840 onwards, as well as by the liberalization of the maritime sector and by the port reform initiated in the 1870s. In this paper we aim to study the patterns of transformation of la Barceloneta economy throughout this period and analyze the roles that the actors and institutions of the district played in the process. As the continuous presence of permanent and temporary seafarers and other maritime workers shaped the goods and services offered, both in the regular and the underground economy, we also aim to evaluate phenomena such as leisure, lodging or prostitution in the district and its evolution along the period. (Show less)

In the early-modern period ports typically harboured both sailors and dockers. Dockers worked in the port on a daily basis, and especially when they had a casual job, had to show up sometimes several times a day or on short notice. They therefore typically lived near the port. Sailors could also be recruited from farther away, but they also lived in typical sailors neighbourhoods.
The comparison of these two maritime occupations, will focus on the Netherlands in 1600-2000. The questions in the session call will be compared for the two occupations in the different phases of their development.
Economic interactions: here the long and relatively formalised labour relation in sailing will form a contrast with dock working. Dock work knew phases in which guilds were important, and when very casual work was the norm.
Social interactions: it will be discussed to what extent both groups formed a separate community, with for instance multi-generational job histories, or part of a migratory path, where work in sailing or the docks were stepping stones between rural and urban life.
Conflictual interactions: Both occupations were considered heavy and rough occupations for men that did not shy away from conflict. Differences in conflicts with employers will be discussed, as well as to some extent between groups of workers in relation to work.
Cultural interactions, in the way indicated in the call, are specific to sailors. A useful comparison with dock work does not seem feasible.
Gender interactions: Both occupations were strongly male. The role of sailors wives in running a family while the men were at sea has been researched. There is no similar element in the lives of dockers’ wives. However, both groups of women resembled each other socially, and dockers’ wives showed their agency during conflicts. (Show less)

This paper explores the dynamic relationship between Gothenburg’s pleasure culture and migration movements through its port between 1880 and 1925. In this period, both migration to Gothenburg and emigration from its port characterized the city. The relationship between migration and the flowering of pleasure culture in the port area is evident from shifts in the geography of leisure. From 1860 onwards, with the ships leaving from Skeppsbron, the adjacent Herring Street developed into the centre of pleasure culture. In 1915, the Swedish America Line moved the embarking station to the Stigbergs-quay. By then, the area around Järntorget further concentrated pleasure culture establishments.
Herring Street not only hosted a wide range of pleasure establishments but also the headquarters of the main ship companies. This same street boasted (cheap) hotels and emigration agencies alongside beer houses and restaurants. Considered disreputable by bourgeois observers, these places were frequented by people of various cultural and social origins, transient residents and city dwellers alike: local fishermen and dock workers, Swedish and foreign sailors, farmers and future emigrants, foreign and Swedish migrants.
By mainly using visual representations of Gothenburg’s waterfront and newspaper articles as sources, this paper analyses how the spatial concentration of entertainment- and migration-based business affected contemporaneous representations of the port district. It addresses to main questions: To what extent did the proximity of pleasure culture and migration shape contemporaries’ vision of the port district as a place of ‘the other’ and of encounter with the non-European? Which role did gender play in this narrative creation? (Show less)