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National competitiveness has become a misnomer, as competitiveness is increasingly understood as a regional phenomenon and regions are not confined to the boundaries of the nation state. This book focuses on the Port of Rotterdam and its hinterland - i.e. the Lower Rhine and the Ruhr area. A transnational perspective is imperative to understand the historical trajectories of the port, the hinterland and the region itself. This book brings geography and the transnational study of regions back into the historical discipline, linking places to larger geographical scales and to systems of production and consumption and the global chains in which they are organised. This book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in urban studies, urban planning, public policy, geography and political science.
List of contents
1. Transnational regions from a historical perspective: Rotterdam’s port and Ruhr industry, 1870–2010 2. The Rhine in the long 19th century: creating the Lower Rhine region 3. Coal, iron ore and the rise of the Rotterdam-Ruhr relationship, 1850–1914 4. Tensions within the Lower Rhine economy: AKU versus VGF, 1929–1969 5. Coal to oil and the post-war expansion of port and hinterland, 1945–1973 6. Port competition and the containerisation of hinterland transport, 1966–2010
About the author
Marten Boon is researcher at the University of Oslo and an affiliated researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.
Hein A.M. Klemann is Professor of Social and Economic History at Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Ben Wubs is Professor of International Business History at Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Appointed Project Professor at the Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University.
Summary
National competitiveness has become a misnomer, as competitiveness is increasingly understood as a regional phenomenon and regions in turn are not confined to the boundaries of the nation state. This focusses on the port of Rotterdam and its hinterland, i.e. the Lower Rhine and the Ruhr area.
