A collection of port studies that explore the changing relationship between institutional frameworks and the development of transportation nodes are included in the recently published special issue of the journal Journal of Transport Geography. The theme of this issue of the prestigious scholarly journal (vol. 27, 2013) is “Institutional Frameworks and the Transformation of Transport Nodes”, with PortEconomics co-director Thanos Pallis, associate member Adolf Ng, and Prof. Peter Hall (Simon Fraser, Vancouver CA) acting as guest editors.
As Adolf, Peter and Thanos point in their guest editorial:
“…how we govern transportation nodes affects their performance and development, including their geography, and because how they develop and perform shapes local and non-local stakeholders’ relationships towards them. Operational modes and institutional frameworks that affect transportation nodes are subject to processes of change operating at various spatial and temporal scales. Transportation nodes have not escaped the profound political and economic changes, which have swept across the globe in the past three decades; seaports, airports and other transportation terminals have been key sites in the remaking of the global economy.
Not only have the connections, functions, scale and internal operations of transport nodes changed, so too have the institutional frameworks and systems of governance in which they are planned, financed and managed. Structures and strategies which coordinated relations and behaviour between stakeholders in the era of inter-national trade no longer matched the emerging globalized economic, operational and ideological environment. Key user and provider organizations increasingly found it difficult to implement their stated functions and so sought to adjust institutional frameworks to sustain competitiveness or even simply to survive.
Despite the shared experiences of development under globalization and thus pressure for similar reform and transformation, significant divergence exists among governance and development trajectories within transportation nodes. Indeed, this is not surprising given that they are often embedded within fixed locations, and thus subject to specific regional and local dynamics. This implies that investigations of transportation nodes have potential to enrich institutional theories and contribute to their refinement to help understand the evolution and development of economic activity more broadly.
This special issue focuses on the development of transportation nodes around the world, with special attention being paid to their embeddedness within existing governance and institutional frameworks. Papers investigate how existing institutional legacies contribute to diversified outcomes in various economic, social and political contexts. The papers included here reflect on experiences that have entailed the provision of generic, spatially neutral solutions in different geographical settings, as well as enriching our understanding on path dependency in organizational change. The outputs of this special issue can serve as the basis to extend similar analysis towards other economic sectors and develop a theoretical framework explaining why and how institutional structures and political-cultural traditions affect processes of economic reform and regional development. This also has clear implications for any evaluation of the costs and benefits of transport infra- and superstructure investments, especially in the identification of the determinants of success, as well as how and why these may differ according to the economic and social context. This does not only imply a prescription of success maximization, but offers opportunities for sophisticated operators to tailor-make their design configurations to fit particular conditions within different geographical regions”.
All the contributions in this collection emphasise how trajectories of change in both transportation nodes and institutional frameworks are shaped by prior conditions, decisions and structures. The studies show that the governance of transportation nodes makes a difference to their long run development and performance; and, conversely, that the development of transportation nodes itself informs how a variety of actors seek to shape institutional frameworks. What emerges thus is a rather complicated and dynamic picture of the working out of human structure and agency in the context of transportation nodes. Port managers, policy makers, transport service providers, perhaps others too, do not only try to squeeze more performance out of existing transportation nodes and systems. They are also willing to contemplate small and large changes to the governance of nodes and systems. Even if the final outcomes of these efforts cannot be predicted in advance, it is clear that these governance reforms tend to replicate existing institutional frameworks and hence development trajectories”.
To read the port studies included in the special issue visit the: Journal of Transport Geography webpage:
- “Guest editors’ introduction: institutions and the transformation of transport nodes” (by Ng, A.K.Y., Hall, P.V. and Pallis A.A.)
- “Path dependency and regional port authorities: A case for innovation network leadership?” (by Cahoon, S., Chen, S-L., and Haugstetter, H.).
- “Governing the European Port-City Interface: Institutional Impacts on Spatial Projects between City and Port” (by Daamen, T.A. and Vries, I.).
- “Shaping port governance: the territorial trajectories of reform” (by Debrie, J., Lavaud-Letilleul, V. and Parola, F.).
- “Stakeholder management and path dependence in large-scale transport infrastructure development: the port of Antwerp case (1960-2010)” (by Dooms, M., Verbeke, A. and Haezendonck, E.).
- “The Heartland Intermodal Corridor: public private partnerships and the transformation of institutional settings” (by J. Monios & Lambert B.).
- “Institutions, Bureaucratic & Logistical Roles of Dry Ports: The Brazilian Experience”, (by Ng, A.K.Y., Padilha, F. and Pallis, A.A.):
- “Institutional plasticity and path dependence in seaports: Interactions between institutions, port governance reforms and port authority routines”. (by Notteboom, T., De Langen, P and Jacobs, W. 2013)
